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MACMILLAN'S  STANDARD   LIBRARY 


CHATHAM 


CHATHAM 


BY 


FREDERIC  HARRISON 


KEW   YORK 

GROSSET    &    DUNLAP 

PUBLISHERS 


COPTBIGHT,    1905, 

By  the  MAOMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  elcctrotyped.     Published  March,  1903. 
Reprinted  March,  1907. 


Norinooti  freest 

J.  8.  Gushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


JV  V>  '^ 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

rAOB 

Introductory ,        ,        .        1 

CHAPTER  II 
Earlt  Lifb •        «        .        7 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Rising  Orator 24 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Aspirant  for  Office 44 

CHAPTER  V 
In  Subordinate  Office 57 

CHAPTER  VI 
First  Ministry .75 

CHAPTER  Vn 

Fall  from  Power ^1" 

V 

431843 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VIII 

PAGB 

In  Opposition I43 

CHAPTER  IX 
The  Chatham  Ministry 169 

CHAPTER  X 
Defence  of  Ieeland  and  India 191 

CHAPTER  XI 
Defence  of  the  Constitution        .....    206 

CHAPTER  XII 
Defence  of  America ,       ,    225 

APPENDIX 238 


CHATHAM 


CHATHAM 

CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Posterity,  this  is  an  impartial  picture.  I  am  neither 
dazzled  by  the  blaze  of  the  times  in  which  I  have  lived,  nor, 
if  there  are  spots  in  the  sun,  do  I  deny  that  I  see  them.  It 
is  a  man  lam  describing,  and  one,  whose  greatness  will  bear 
to  have  his  blemishes  fairly  delivered  to  you  —  not  from  a 
love  of  censure  in  me,  but  of  truth ;  and  because  it  is  history 
I  am  writing,  not  romance. 

Such  was  the  judgment  passed  on  Chatham  by  a 
hostile  contemporary,  whose  Memoirs  were  withheld 
from  the  public  eye  for  nearly  a  century  after  their 
compilation.  In  these  words  Horace  Walpole  sums  up 
his  incisive  character  of  "  the  terrible  cornet  of  horse  " 
whom  Sir  Kobert  Walpole  attempted  to  muzzle,  of 
the  aspiring  orator  who  contributed  so  much  to  the 
fall  of  Sir  Robert,  of  the  imperious  statesman  who 
finally  succeeded  to  more  than  the  power  of  Walpole 
at  his  zenith,  reversed  his  policy,  and  entirely  recast 
the  international  position  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
world. 

In  eight  centuries  our  country  has  known  but  four 
great  creative  statesmen :  men  who,  to  use  the  words 
of  a  well-known  historian,  have  been  "  founders  or 
creators  of  a  new  order  of  things."    William  the 

B  1 


2  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Conqueror  made  all  England  an  organic  nation.  Ed- 
ward che  First  conceived  and  founded  Great  Britain. 
Cromwell  made  the  United  Kingdom  and  founded  our 
Sea  Power.  Chatham  made  the  Colonial  System  and 
was  the  founder  of  the  Empire.  For  good  and  for  evil, 
through  heroism  and  through  spoliation,  with  all  its 
vast  and  far-reaching  consequences,  industrial,  eco- 
nomic, social,  and  moral  —  the  foundation  of  the  Empire 
was  the  work  of  Chatham.  He  changed  the  course  of 
England's  history  —  nay,  the  course  of  modern  history. 
For  a  century  and  a  half  the  development  of  our  coun- 
try has  grown  upon  the  imperial  lines  of  Chatham's 
ideals ;  and  succeeding  statesmen  have  based  the  key- 
note of  their  policy  on  enlarging  the  range  of  these 
ideals,  in  warding  off  the  dangers  they  involved,  in 
curbing  or  in  stimulating  the  excesses  they  bred. 

Frederick  of  Prussia  said  of  Chatham,  "England 
has  long  been  in  labour,  and  has  suffered  much  to 
produce  Mr.  Pitt:  but  at  last  she  has  brought  forth 
a  man."  By  France,  the  rise  and  fall  of  Chatham  was 
watched  as  equivalent  to  the  loss  or  the  gain  of 
a  decisive  campaign.  His  hyperbolic  self-will,  his 
almost  grotesque  arrogance,  seemed  excused  by  the 
deference  of  all  with  whom  he  acted,  and  the  timidity 
of  all  whom  he  confronted.  Contemporary  memoirs 
ring  with  anecdotes  of  his  personal  ascendency  and 
the  terror  he  inspired  at  home  and  abroad.  When 
Chatham  said  to  a  colleague,  "I  know  that  I  can 
save  this  country,  and  that  no  one  else  can,"  it 
was  not  regarded  as  arrogance  and  presumption,  but 
was  treated  as  simple  truth,  which  no  doubt  it  was. 
Walpole's  famous  character  of  Chatham,  from  which  a 


I.]  INTRODUCTORT  3 

sentence  heads  this  chapter,  runs  thus :  "  The  admirers 
of  Mr.  Pitt  extol  the  reverberation  he  gives  to  our 
councils,  the  despondence  he  banished,  the  spirit  he 
infused,  the  conquests  he  made,  the  security  he  affixed 
to  our  trade  and  plantations,  the  humiliations  of 
France,  the  glory  of  Britain  carried  under  his  minis- 
trations to  a  pitch  at  which  it  never  had  arrived  —  and 
all  this  is  exactly  true." 

In  his  own  age  and  in  ours,  Chatham  has  cast  a 
spell  over  men's  minds,  and  has  usually  been  spoken 
of  in  superlatives  of  praise  and  of  blame.  In  West- 
minster Abbey  we  read,  that  it  was  during  his  adminis- 
tration that  Great  Britain  was  exalted  "  to  a  height 
of  prosperity  and  glory  unknown  to  any  former  age." 
In  the  Guildhall  we  read  that  William  Pitt  was  raised 
up  by  Providence  "as  the  principal  instrument  in 
His  memorable  work."  Both  these  public  monuments 
were  erected  many  years  after  the  statesman's  fall 
and  retirement.  The  first  was  ordered  by  Parliament 
under  the  ministry  of  Lord  North,  whom  Chatham 
so  fiercely  opposed  and  denounced.  The  second  in- 
scription was  composed  by  Edmund  Burke,  his  oppo- 
nent and  severe  judge.  The  French  Abbe  Kaynal,  in  his 
History  of  Indian  Commerce  (of  1780),  declared  that 
Chatham  "  raised  the  heart  of  England  so  high,  that 
his  administration  was  nothing  but  a  chain  of  con- 
quests." Lord  Brougham,  in  his  Historical  Sketches, 
tells  us  that  Chatham  "  is  the  person  to  whom  every 
one  would  point  if  desired  to  name  the  most  successful 
statesman  and  the  most  brilliant  orator  that  this 
country  ever  produced."  Lord  Macaulay,  in  many 
things  his  severest  critic,  in  his  fine  description  of  the 


4  CHATHAM  [chap. 

inouument  in  the  Abbey,  concludes  that  "history, 
while  for  the  warning  of  vehement,  high,  and  daring 
natures,  she  notes  his  many  errors,  will  yet  deliber- 
ately pronounce,  that,  among  the  eminent  men  whose 
bones  lie  near  his,  scarcely  one  has  left  a  more  stainless, 
and  none  a  more  splendid  name."  In  our  own  time 
Mr.  J.  R.  Green  is  fascinated  by  "the  personal  and 
solitary  grandeur"  of  Chatham,  "by  the  depth  of  his 
conviction,  his  passionate  love  of  all  he  deemed  lofty 
and  true,  his  fiery  energy,  his  poetic  imaginativeness," 
"his  purely  public  spirit."  "He  loved  England  with 
an  intense  and  personal  love.  He  believed  in  her 
power,  her  glory,  her  public  virtue,  till  England  learned 
to  believe  in  herself."  Mr.  Lecky  has  said:  "  With  all 
his  faults  he  was  a  very  great  man  —  far  surpassing 
both  in  mental  and  moral  altitude  the  other  politicians 
of  his  generation."  As  Lord  Shelburne,  the  colleague 
and  successor  of  Chatham,  records  that  he  was  a  man 
"  of  a  most  extraordinary  imagination,"  so  the  descend- 
ant and  historian  of  Shelburne  speaks  of  the  great 
orator  "as  the  eternal  monument  of  the  highest 
eloquence  employed  on  the  noblest  objects." 

The  reverberation  of  these  achievements  has  passed 
away.  The  long  and  crowded  epoch  of  Chatham's  son 
tended  to  make  men  forgetful  of  the  father,  who  far 
outlived  the  span  of  his  own  power ;  and  the  tremen- 
dous events  that  followed  the  French  Revolution  and 
the  Empire  of  Napoleon  overshadowed  the  reign  of 
George  ii.  But  history  will  continue  to  dwell  with 
praise  or  with  blame,  with  sympathy  or  with  sorrow, 
on  the  lonely  chief  who  breathed  a  new  sovil  into  his 
countrymen,  who  planted  the  saplings  which  have 


I.]  INTRODUCTORY  6 

grown  into  a  mighty  forest,  who  inspired  that  passion 
for  transoceanic  expansion  which  has  led  to  such 
energies,  such  miseries,  such  glory,  and  such  heart- 
burning. 

There  seem  to  be  peculiar  difficulties  in  attempting 
to  write  the  life  of  a  statesman  whose  work  so  many 
of  our  statesmen  have  sought  to  imitate,  whose 
methods  and  doctrines  so  many  others  have  con- 
demned. Chatham  is  usually  regarded  as  pre-eminently 
a  "war  minister."  And  undoubtedly  he  "organised 
victory  "  on  a  scale  greater  than  that  achieved  by  any 
other  English  statesman.  Though  he  never  saw  a 
battle-field  in  his  life,  he  is  reported  to  have  said  that 
"  he  loved  honourable  war."  If  he  loved  war  for  itself, 
as  Alexander  and  Napoleon  did,  it  is  an  indelible  blot 
upon  his  name.  The  great-grandson  of  Chatham's 
colleague  and  successor,  speaking  before  Chatham's 
monument  in  the  Guildhall  of  London,  has  in  our 
generation  denounced  "the  scourge  and  calamity  of 
a  needless  war."  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
Chatham's  wars  were  singularly  sparing  of  blood, 
suffering,  and  ruin,  to  the  victors  as  to  the  conquered. 
They  have  resulted  in  permanent  conquests  and 
settlements  unexampled  in  modern  history.  The 
memory  of  these  results  has  too  often  obscured  the 
magnificent  and  far-seeing  efforts  of  Chathana  towards 
international  justice,  domestic  reform,  and  peaceful 
progress.  In  many  of  the  aims  of  good  government 
he  anticipated  the  work  of  his  successors.  In  ages  to 
come,  this  perhaps  will  be  his  true  glory.  Mr.  Lecky 
has  said:  "Ko  minister  had  a  greater  power  of 
making  a  sluggish  people  brave,  or  a  slavish  people 


6  CHATHAM  [chap.  i. 

free  or  a  disaffected  people  loyal."  Of  how  many  of 
our  statesmen  could  this  noble  eulogy  be  passed? 
But,  as  Walpole  reminds  us,  such  a  man  must  be 
painted  as  he  was,  with  all  his  faults  and  all  his 
failures.  The  glamour  of  his  personality  is  nothing  to 
us  now.     We  have  "  to  write  history,  not  romance." 


CHAPTER  II 

EARLY    LIFE 

William  Pitt  was  bom  on  the  15th  of  November  1708, 
of  an  honourable  and  wealthy  family,  settled  in  the 
West  of  England,  Until  he  entered  Parliament  at  the 
age  of  twenty-six,  nothing  but  a  few  bare  facts  have 
been  recorded  of  his  life ;  nor  have  eulogists  or  critics 
given  us  a  very  definite  picture  of  his  boyhood  and 
youth.  It  seems  as  if  the  majestic  personality,  which 
so  deeply  overawed  his  contemporaries,  had  caused 
his  biographers  to  abstain  from  searching  into  the 
story  of  their  hero's  life,  until  he  had  become  a  strik- 
ing character  in  the  political  world.  "  Of  his  infancy 
and  early  youth  I  have  not  been  able  to  collect  any 
authenticated  information,"  sighs  the  most  obsequious 
of  his  biographers.  For  biographical  purposes,  "  The 
Great  Commoner"  had  no  youth.  The  bare  facts 
extant  are  soon  told. 

William  was  the  younger  son  of  Robert  Pitt,  M.P. 
for  Old  Sarum,  who  was  the  eldest  son  of  Thomas 
Pitt,  of  Swallowfield,  Berks,  and  of  Boconnoc  in  Corn- 
wall, who  was  also  M.P.  for  Old  Sarum,  his  own 
borough.  In  the  genealogy  prefixed  to  the  authorised 
Life,  the  Pitt  family  is  traced  back  to  Nicholas  Pitt, 

7 


8  CHATHAM  [chap. 

temp.  Henry  vii.  (or  Henry  vi.),  through  a  John  Pitt, 
clerk  of  the  Exchequer,  temp.  Elizabeth,  a  Thomas 
Pitt,  seated  at  Blandford,  Dorset,  and  another  John 
Pitt,  rector  of  Blandford,  who  was  great-grandfather 
of  the  statesman.  Lord  Shelburne,  who  was  himself 
a  Fitzmaurice,  in  his  autobiography  says  that  Pitt 
was  a  younger  son  "of  no  great  family."  Lord 
Chesterfield  called  it  a  "very  new  family."  But  in 
the  fulsome  biography  compiled  by  the  Kev.  Erancis 
Thackeray  —  an  uncle,  by  the  way,  of  our  great  satirist 
—  the  "  respectability  "  of  the  Pitt  family  is  vouched 
by  the  intermarriages  of  that  house  with  men  and 
women  of  rank  and  condition.  The  historian,  whom 
his  nephew  might  have  classed  as  a  "  clerical  snob,"  is 
indignant  that  the  Earl  of  Chatham  should  be  called  a 
novus  homo.  He  gives  us  a  Sir  William  Pitt,  1636, 
ancestor  of  Lord  Elvers,  two  Thomas  Pitts,  father  and 
son,  and  a  Ridgeway  Pitt,  all  three  Earls  of  London- 
derry, uncle  and  cousins  of  the  statesman.  He  records 
also  another  uncle,  John  Pitt,  as  marrying  the  sister 
of  Viscount  Fauconberg,  and  an  aunt,  Lucy,  who 
married  James,  first  Earl  Stanhope.  "Be  this  as  it 
may  "  —  to  use  the  formula  of  genealogists  —  it  is  clear 
that  the  Pitts  were  a  race  which,  not  being  of  the 
highest  influence  or  descent,  had  been  allied  during 
some  generations  with  families  of  rank  and  name. 

The  most  conspicuous  of  Chatham's  ancestors  was 
his  grandfather,  Thomas  Pitt,  who  in  an  adventurous 
life  of  seventy-three  years  (1653-1726)  amassed  fortune 
and  reputation  abroad.  There  are  so  many  traits  of 
likeness  between  this  bold  adventurer  and  his  grand- 
son, that  the  study  of  atavism  demands  a  few  words 


II.]  EARLY   LIFE  9 

on  his  career.  Thomas  Pitt  as  a  youth  engaged  him- 
self first  as  a  sailor,  and  then  in  a  miscellaneous  trade 
in  India,  settled  in  Bengal,  and  for  twenty  years 
carried  on  a  battle  with  the  East  India  Company  as 
an  "interloper"  on  their  monopoly.  On  one  occasion 
he  was  bound  over  not  to  engage  in  illicit  business  in 
£40,000,  on  another  he  was  fined  £1000.  He  remained 
impenitent,  irrepressible,  and  triumphant.  Having 
brought  the  Company  to  terms,  he  was  for  twelve 
years  Governor  of  Madras,  which  he  successfully 
defended  against  the  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic.^  He 
purchased  estates  in  England,  and  was  elected  to  the 
Parliaments  of  1689,  1690,  and  1695.  From  1710  till 
1715  he  represented  Old  Sarum.  He  was  appointed 
Governor  of  Jamaica,  but  he  did  not  go  out  to  the 
island.  "  He  always  knew  what  to  do,  and  he  did  it." 
He  was  a  man  of  indomitable  energy  and  infinite 
resource,  by  which  he  amassed  considerable  fortune, 
which  he  invested  in  English  estates. 

Governor  Pitt  married  Jane  Innes,  who,  we  are 
told,  traced  descent  from  James  Stewart,  Earl  of 
Moray,  natural  son  of  James  v.   of   Scotland;    and 

1  During  bis  stay  at  Madras  he  kept  up  a  constant  search  for  large 
diamonds,  from  which  he  obtained  the  name  of  "Diamond  Pitt." 
His  great  coup  was  the  purchase  of  the  historic  Pitt  diamond,  which 
he  acquired  in  1701  for  £20,400.  He  sold  it  in  1717  to  the  Regent 
of  France  for  £135,000.  It  weighed,  before  cutting,  410  carats,  and 
it  now  weighs  136  carats.  It  is  the  second  diamond  in  the  world,  and 
is  still  preserved  in  the  State  Jewels  of  France  in  the  grand  Apollo 
Gallery  of  the  Louvre.  It  was  recently  valued  at  £480,000.  Under 
the  Empire,  it  was  set  in  the  hilt  of  Napoleon's  sword  of  ceremony. 
Thus,  by  one  of  the  ironies  of  history,  the  stone  which  bought  a  seat 
in  Parliament  for  Chatham  adorned  "  the  sword  of  Austerlitz," 
which  broke  the  heart  of  Chatham's  son. 


10  CHATHAM  [chap. 

patriotic  Scots  have  made  mucli  of  this  legendary 
descent.  Having  amassed  great  fortune  —  and  no 
doubt  other  speculations  of  his  besides  the  diamond 
returned  him  seven  hundred  per  cent,  on  his  outlay  — 
he  settled  in  the  West  of  England,  and  purchased  from 
the  widow  of  Lord  Mohun,  the  famous  duellist,  the  fine 
estate  of  Boconnoc  in  Cornwall.  It  lay  on  a  tributary 
of  the  Fowey,  four  miles  east  of  Lostwithiel,  near  the 
scene  of  the  Koyalist  victory  of  Bradock  Down  in 
1643.  Boconnoc  —  which  is  said  to  have  the  finest 
grounds  in  the  county  —  is,  however,  but  incidentally 
connected  with  Chatham.  He  was  certainly  not  born 
there,  as  used  to  be  said,  for  he  was  ten  years  old 
when  his  grandfather  purchased  the  estate.  Governor 
Pitt,  who  died  in  1726,  before  Chatham  was  eighteen, 
devised  Boconnoc  to  Robert  Pitt,  his  eldest  son,  who 
died  in  the  following  year;  and  then  the  estate 
descended  to  Thomas,  the  statesman's  elder  brother. 
It  passed  ultimately  through  the  Grenvilles  by  mar- 
riage to  the  Fortescue  family,  who  scrupulously  pre- 
serve the  Chatham  memorials  and  portraits  that  remain 
there. 

It  would  appear  from  the  Fortescue  Papers  {Hist. 
MSS.  Com.)  that  the  Governor  himself  was  some- 
thing of  a  rough  diamond.  His  spelling  is  original, 
and  his  style  abrupt.  And  his  family  seems  to  have 
been  both  quarrelsome  and  thriftless.  Robert  Pitt, 
the  father  of  the  statesman,  the  eldest  of  three 
sons  of  Governor  Pitt,  married  Harriet  Villiers, 
daughter  of  the  fifth  Viscount  Grandison,  of  Ireland. 
They  had  two  sons,  of  whom  the  statesman  was  the 
younger,  and  five  daughters.     Three  of  these  daughters 


II.]  EARLY  LIFE  11 

married  gentlemen  of  good  estate,  and  one  of  them 
became  Maid  of  Honour  to  Queen  Caroline.  The 
critical  Lord  Shelburne  declared  that  they  were  pro- 
fligate and  mad.  Thomas,  the  elder  brother  of 
Chatham,  married  the  sister  of  the  first  Lord  Lyttel- 
ton,  of  Hagley  in  Worcestershire,  and  became  the 
father  of  the  first  Lord  Camelford.  Chatham  himself, 
as  we  shall  see,  married  the  sister  of  Richard  Grenville, 
the  first  Earl  Temple.  This  sketch  will  show  us  at 
once  the  family  connections  between  the  houses  of 
Pitt,  Villiers,  Stanhope,  Temple,  Grenville,  and 
Lyttelton. 

It  is  certain  from  the  books  of  Trinity  College, 
Oxford,  that  Chatham  was  born  in  the  Parish  of 
St,  James,  Westminster.  Along  with  Chaucer,  Bacon, 
Milton,  Pope,  and  Byron,  he  serves  to  refute  Carlyle's 
empirical  law  that  "  it  is  impossible  but  that  a  London- 
born  man  should  not  be  a  stunted  one."  Of  the  boy- 
hood of  Chatham  almost  nothing  is  recorded,  accept 
"  a  family  tradition "  which  we  fain  would  accept  on 
the  authority  of  an  eminent  relative.  The  first  Earl 
Stanhope,  general  and  statesman,  who  in  courage, 
energy,  and  sagacity,  bore  some  resemblance  to  Chat- 
ham, noticed  the  genius  of  the  boy,  his  nephew  by 
marriage,  and  would  call  him  "the  young  Marshal." 
The  "  young  Marshal "  was  sent  to  Eton  at  an  early 
age,  was  on  the  foundation,  and  had  for  schoolfellows 
the  first  Lord  Lyttelton,  Henry  Fox,  the  first  Lord 
Holland,  Henry  Fielding,  author  of  Tom  Jones,  and 
Charles  Pratt,  Lord  Chancellor  Camden.  Lord  Shel- 
burne, his  colleague,  relates  that  Chatham  was  "  distin- 
guished at  Eton,"  but  that  he  took  an  unfavourable 


12  CHATHAM  [chap. 

view  of  the  school  system.  One  of  his  sayings  was  : 
"He  scarce  observed  a  boy  who  was  not  cowed  for 
life  at  Eton  —  a  public  school  might  suit  a  boy  of 
a  turbulent  forward  disposition  "  —  a  temperament 
which  Chatham  was  not  himself  conscious  that  he 
possessed.  But  he  certainly  was  not  "  cowed  for  life 
at  Eton."  From  Eton  he  went  to  Trinity  College, 
Oxford,  where  he  entered  as  a  gentleman-commoner 
in  January  1727,  when  he  was  just  eighteen.  He 
was  subject  to  gout  even  as  a  boy;  and  he  suffered 
from  it  so  severely  whilst  at  Oxford  that  he  left  the 
University,  and  was  advised  to  travel.  He  did  not 
take  a  degree,  and  spent  some  time  in  France  and 
Italy.  But  he  could  not  shake  off  the  disease.  During 
life  he  remained  a  martyr  to  it,  and  we  shall  see  how 
cruelly  the  affliction  reacted  upon  his  whole  nature 
and  his  public  career. 

Feeble  health,  we  are  told,  made  young  Pitt  a 
reader,  and  he  gave  himself  to  history  and  the  classics. 
The  Latin  verses  he  published  at  Oxford  on  the  death 
of  George  i.  in  1727,  if  we  allow  for  a  few  solecisms 
or  misprints,  are  not  below  the  standard  of  such  college 
exercises.  Lord  Stanhope  tells  us  that  the  favourite 
authors  of  the  young  orator  were  Thucydides,  Demos- 
thenes, and,  in  English,  Bolingbroke  and  Barrow.  He 
would  translate  the  classics  into  fluent  English  prose ; 
he  read  and  re-read  Barrow's  sermons,  till  he  could 
repeat  them  by  heart.  He  was  also  a  constant  reader 
of  Spenser's  Faery  Queen.  And  he  would  read  Shake- 
speare aloud  to  his  family.  Chatham  never  was  a 
scholar  in  the  strict  sense :  like  most  great  orators, 
he  was  rather  a  poor  writer,  too  often  stilted  and 


II.]  EARLY  LIFE  13 

usually  bald.  Nor  is  there  any  evidence  that  he 
possessed  any  serious  learning  or  natural  gift  for 
literature.  But  it  is  plain  that  his  powerful  mind 
had  assimilated  such  history  and  poetry  as  was  most 
akin  to  his  nature.  As  Lord  Stanhope  tells  us,  he 
was  early  "  warmed  by  the  flame  "  of  the  records  of 
the  past  and  by  the  great  books  of  the  ancient  and  the 
modern  world. 

Chatham's  letters  show  us  that  he  was  full  of  the 
familiar  classics,  which  he  quotes  continually  and 
aptly.  His  letters  to  his  nephew,  the  first  Lord 
Camelford,  give  us  the  picture  of  a  noble  mind  well 
read  in  the  best  authors.  He  assists  him  in  translat- 
ing Virgil's  Eclogues  into  verse.  He  insists  on  his 
reading  the  Aeneid  "  from  beginning  to  ending."  He 
hopes  that  he  loves  the  Iliad  and  the  Aeneid:  they 
contain  "  lessons  of  honour,  courage,  disinterested- 
ness, love  of  truth,  command  of  temper,  gentleness  of 
behaviour,  humanity,  and  in  one  word,  virtue  in  its 
true  signification."  He  recommends  Locke,  Burnet, 
Bolingbroke,  Lord  Clarendon's  History,  May  on  the 
Parliament.  Lord  Granville,  editing  these  letters, 
very  aptly  quotes  Milton :  —  "I  call  that  a  complete 
and  generous  education  which  fits  a  man  to  perform 
justly,  skilfully,  and  magnanimousl}^,  all  the  offices 
both  public  and  private,  of  peace  and  war."  That 
complete  and  generous  education  Chatham  had. 

After  his  father's  death,  the  elder  brother  having 
succeeded  to  the  family  estates,  William  Pitt  embraced 
the  profession  of  arms,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-three 
he  obtained  a  commission  as  Cornet  in  the  Blues, 
apparently  by  the  interest  of  its  colonel,  Lord  Cobham, 


14  CHATHAM  [chap. 

whose  niece  was  the  wife  of  his  brother  Thomas. 
Lord  Chesterfield  tells  us  that  the  income  of  the 
young  soldier  at  this  time  was  but  £100  a  year.  Of 
his  military  career,  which  lasted  only  four  years,  we 
know  nothing,  nor  need  we  indulge  the  speculations 
of  his  reverend  panegyrist  and  his  martial  uncle  that 
he  would  have  gained  glory  as  a  great  commander. 

He  applied  himself  to  the  art  of  war  with  char- 
acteristic ardour,  for  he  told  Lord  Shelburne  that, 
as  Cornet,  there  was  not  a  military  book  he  had  not 
read  through.  If  he  had  any  such  dreams  himself, 
they  were  cut  short  in  an  unexpected  and  quite 
dramatic  way.  On  February  7,  1735,  William  Pitt 
was  returned  as  member  of  Parliament  for  Old 
Sarum,  the  proverbial  "rotten  borough,"  which  had 
been  bought  by  Diamond  Pitt,  and  had  been  repre- 
sented by  him  and  by  Robert  Pitt,  his  son.  William 
entered  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  later  years 
of  Walpole's  long  administration,  a  time  when  a  vehe- 
ment and  determined  opposition  was  led  by  William 
Pulteney,  whose  party  were  known  as  the  "  Patriots." 

The  reign  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole  was  now  being 
slowly  undermined,  though  his  consummate  skill  as  a 
tactician  still  maintained  a  dull,  venal,  fickle  majority. 
His  insatiable  grasp  of  power  had  driven  from  his 
side  all  men  of  ability  and  force.  The  sinister  genius 
of  Bolingbroke  scattered  on  all  sides  the  seeds  of  dis- 
content. Wyndham  led  the  opposition  in  a  tone  of 
fierce  denunciation.  Townshend,  Pulteney,  Chester- 
field, Carteret  had  left  the  veteran.  His  sagacious 
scheme  of  Excise  had  aroused  such  indignation  in  the 
nation  that  it  was  withdrawn  to  avoid  an  outbreak  j 


11.]  EARLY  LIFE  16 

but  the  Duke  of  Bolton  and  Lord  Cobham,  who 
opposed  it,  were  cashiered  and  deprived  of  their  regi- 
ments by  a  scandalous  abuse  of  ministerial  pressure. 
The  great  minister's  most  successful  policy  —  peace 
abroad  and  quiet  business  at  home  —  had  enriched 
the  nation  by  leaps  and  bounds,  whilst  it  irritated 
the  King,  alarmed  the  patriots,  and  met  ceaseless 
ridicule  from  the  public  and  the  press.  The  Prince 
of  Wales,  the  unlucky  "  Fred  "  of  the  Memoirs,  natur- 
ally became  the  centre  of  opposition  to  his  father 
and  his  father's  counsellor.  Bound  him  gathered  the 
leaders  of  the  Opposition,  claiming  to  be  the  true 
"Old  Whigs  of  the  Kevolution,"  whose  historic  policy 
it  was  to  curb  the  power  of  the  Crown.  Swift,  Pope, 
Gay,  Thomson,  and  Arbuthnot  supplied  the  malcon- 
tents with  brilliancy  and  satire ;  and  both  within  and 
without  the  Parliament,  spasmodic  attempts  were  con- 
tinually hatched  to  bring  about  a  coalition  with  the 
Jacobite  factions.  In  face  of  all  these  opponents.  Sir 
Eobert  still  contrived  to  maintain  his  sinking  autho- 
rity by  a  marvellous  union  of  courage,  energy,  sagacity, 
and  tact. 

It  was  the  hour  for  the  rise  of  a  great  orator,  and 
the  greatest  orator  who  has  ever  trod  the  floors  of 
Parliament  had  now  appeared  on  the  stage.  When 
Sir  Kichard  Temple,  of  Stowe,  had  succeeded  to  a 
splendid  estate  and  great  influence  by  his  family  con- 
nections, he  revived  the  title  of  Lord  Cobham.  His 
sister  Hester  married  Richard  Grenville,  and  his  sister 
Christian  married  Sir  Thomas  Lyttelton.  Thomas  Pitt, 
the  elder  brother,  married  a  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas, 
a  sister  of  George,  the  first  Lord  Lyttelton,  whilst 


16  CHATHAM  [chap. 

William  Pitt,  the  Chatham  that  was  to  be,  married  the 
second  Hester,  the  daughter  of  Richard  Grenville,  the 
sister  of  George,  the  first  Earl  Temple.  This  was 
the  famous  cousinhood  of  the  *'  Boy  Patriots,"  who 
now  formed  a  brilliant  clique  in  society  and  in  Parlia- 
ment. Leicester  House,  the  abode  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  was  their  Court.  Their  rendezvous  in  the 
country  was  the  royal  domain  of  Stowe,  whose  master 
was  the  uncle  of  George  Grenville  and  of  George 
Lyttelton,  and  whose  two  nieces  married  the  two  Pitts. 
William  Pitt,  Cornet  in  the  King's  own  horse, 
entering  the  House  of  Commons  as  member  for  the 
family  borough  of  Old  Sarum,  did  not  immediately 
show  his  powers.  It  was  not  till  29th  April  1736 
that  he  made  his  maiden  speech,  when  he  supported 
Pulteney's  motion  for  an  address  of  congratulation  to 
the  King  on  the  marriage  of  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales. 
The  speech  has  been  reported  with  absurd  encomiums 
by  his  flatterers,  and  is  denounced  as  "empty  and 
wordy  "  by  Macaulay.  Empty  and  wordy  it  is,  if  we 
look  on  it  as  the  conventional  compliments  on  a  royal 
marriage.  If  we  consider  the  circumstances  and  the 
persons,  it  was  a  political  attack  of  curious  insolence. 
The  marriage  had  been  forced  on  the  Prince  by  the 
King.  Congratulations  were  moved,  not  by  the  King's 
friends,  but  by  the  bitter  opponent  of  the  dominant 
minister.  It  was  supported  with  fulsome  exaggera- 
tions by  the  avowed  partisans  of  the  Prince,  a  son  who 
hated  his  father,  and  whom  both  his  parents  detested. 
To  rise  up  and  talk,  as  young  Pitt  did,  of  the  King's 
"tender,  paternal  delight  in  indulging"  his  odious 
heir,  of  "the  humble  request  of  his  submissive  and 


11.]  EARLY  LIFE  17 

obedient  son,"  when  that  son  was  meditating  rebellion 
and  the  father  was  meditating  how  to  disinherit  the 
traitor  —  this  was  not  the  language  of  official  compli- 
ment. And  if  we  imagine  this  fierce  irony  rehearsed 
with  all  the  sonorous  dignity  and  the  dramatic 
emphasis  which  gave  such  thrilling  power  to  Chat- 
ham's eloquence,  we  can  easily  understand  the  effect 
it  produced. 

At  any  rate  the  great  minister  took  it  as  a  formid- 
able challenge.  We  know  from  his  biographer  that 
the  debate  "  gave  great  offence  and  tended  still  further 
to  widen  the  breach  "  —  between  Prince's  friends  and 
King's  friends,  between  the  minister  and  his  opponents. 
The  "  warm  panegyric  bestowed  on  the  Prince,"  "  the 
cold  praises  given  to  the  King  "  —  say  rather,  the  out- 
rageous laudation  of  a  mischievous  fool,  and  the  savage 
irony  poured  on  a  jealous  monarch  —  struck  home. 
Walpole,  they  tell  us,  declared,  "We  must  muzzle 
this  terrible  Cornet  of  horse."  Pitt  was  at  once 
cashiered  and  his  commission  cancelled.  Within  a  few 
weeks,  "  the  supercession  of  Cornet  Pitt "  was  recorded 
and  filled  up,  as  that  of  Lord  Cobham  had  been 
cancelled  three  years  before  for  opposing  the  Excise. 
Walpole  had  already  tried  seduction ;  for  Pitt  himself 
told  Lord  Shelburne  that  Sir  Robert  "  had  offered  him 
the  troop  which  was  afterwards  given  to  General 
Conway."  As  promises  and  rewards  had  not  availed, 
the  great  corrupter  now  tried  penalties. 

Sir  Robert's  cynical  worldly  wisdom  did  not  quite 
measure  the  heroic  temper  of  the  tiro.     He  did  not 
muzzle  the  terrible  young  cornet.     He  merely  whetted 
his  taste  for  blood. 
Q 


18  CHATHAM  [chap. 

The  soldier  who  thus  had  bounded  into  the  front 
rank  of  parliamentary  forces  was  now  in  his  twenty- 
eighth  year.  Nature  had  given  him  every  physical 
advantage.  He  was  tall,  with  an  elegant  and  com- 
manding figure.  Grace  and  dignity  marked  every 
gesture  and  attitude.  It  is  clear  that  Chatham  from 
youth  had  studied  to  improve  his  natural  gifts. 
Writing  to  his  nephew  at  Cambridge,  being  himself  a 
bachelor  in  middle  life,  he  says,  "  Behaviour  is  of  in- 
finite advantage  or  prejudice  to  a  man."  "  Behaviour 
is  certainly  founded  in  considerable  virtues."  "  As  to 
the  carriage  of  your  person,  be  particularly  careful, 
as  you  are  tall  and  thin,  not  to  get  a  habit  of  stoop- 
ing." Politeness,  he  says,  is  "benevolence  in  trifles 
or  the  preference  of  others  to  ourselves  in  little, 
daily,  hourly  occurrences  in  the  commerce  of  life." 
"  To  inferiors,  gentleness,  condescension,  and  affability, 
is  the  only  dignity."  Good  servants  are  "humiles 
Amid,  fellow  Christians,  ConservV 

We  have  ample  records  of  the  orator's  person.  The 
head  was  small  and  the  countenance  thin;  the  nose 
was  aquiline  and  long;  the  eye  "that  of  a  hawk." 
All  the  descriptions  record  the  wonderful  power  of 
that  eye,  in  language  which  would  be  treated  as  ex- 
travagant were  it  not  that  its  effect  is  vouched  by  so 
many  competent  witnesses.  A  Catholic  lawyer  who 
had  seen  Pitt  thus  describes  him  in  that  oft-cited 
passage:  "In  his  look  and  gesture  grace  and  dignity 
were  combined,  but  dignity  presided ;  the  '  terrors  of 
his  beak,  the  lightning  of  his  eye,'  were  insufferable. 
His  voice  was  both  full  and  clear ;  his  lowest  whisper 
was  distinctly  heard,  his  middle  tones  were  sweet,  rich, 


II.]  EARLY  LIFE  19 

and  beautifully  varied ;  when  lie  elevated  his  voice  to 
its  highest  pitch,  the  House  was  completely  filled  with 
the  volume  of  the  sound.  The  effect  was  awful,  except 
when  he  wished  to  cheer  and  animate ;  he  then  had 
spirit-stirring  notes,  which  were  perfectly  irresistible. 
He  frequently  rose,  on  a  sudden,  from  a  very  low  to 
a  very  high  key,  but  it  seemed  to  be  without  effort. 
His  diction  was  remarkably  simple,  but  words  were 
never  chosen  with  more  care  "  —  "  the  terrible  was  his 
peculiar  power.  Then  the  whole  House  sank  before 
him,  —  still,  he  was  dignified ;  and  wonderful  as  was 
his  eloquence,  it  was  attended  with  this  most  im- 
portant effect,  that  it  impressed  every  hearer  with  a  con- 
viction that  there  loas  something  in  him  even  finer  than  his 
words;  that  the  man  was  infinitely  greater  than  the  orator.''^ 
That  is  the  peculiar  keynote  of  Chatham's  power 
of  speech.  It  had  great  defects.  He  was  called  a 
tragedian,  and  no  doubt  he  was  a  consummate  actor. 
A  wit  declared  that  he  was  "the  Cicero  and  the 
Eoscius  of  his  age  in  one."  His  enemy,  Horace  Walpole, 
said  that  he  was  equal  to  Garrick.  Macaulay  says 
that  "on  the  stage  he  would  have  been,  the  finest 
Brutus  or  Coriolanus  ever  seen."  He  knew  the  in- 
stantaneous effect  upon  such  an  audience  of  real 
dramatic  passion.  And  Chatham  let  his  passion  boil 
over.  He  was  no  subtle  debater,  artful  to  follow  out 
an  argument  in  all  its  reasoning  and  refute  it  step  by 
step.  But  he  would  crush  an  opponent  with  a  fierce 
retort,  a  burning  sarcasm,  or  a  thrilling  appeal.  His 
style  was  at  times  florid,  forced,  hyperbolic :  but  even 
then  it  was  no  piece  of  studied  rhetoric;  it  was  the 
turgid  inspiration  of  the  moment.     It  has  been  well 


20  CHATHAM  [chap. 

said :  " He  was  tlie  slave  of  his  own  speecli "  —  "no 
English  orator  was  ever  so  much  feared." 

Of  the  effect  of  his  oratory  we  have  unimpeachable 
evidence.  Walpole  tells  how  "  he  crushed  "  Lyttelton, 
"  crucified  "  Murray,  "  lashed  "  Granville,  "  punished  " 
Newcastle,  "  attacked  "  Fox.  Lord  Chesterfield,  a  keen 
and  sardonic  judge,  relates  that  "his  invectives  were 
terrible,  and  uttered  with  such  energy  of  diction, 
and  such  dignity  of  action  and  countenance,  that  he 
intimidated  those  who  were  the  most  willing  and  the 
best  able  to  encounter  him.  Their  arms  fell  out  of 
their  hands,  and  they  shrunk  under  the  ascendant 
which  his  genius  gained  over  theirs."  Lord  Walde- 
grave  said,  "  He  has  an  eye  as  significant  as  his  words." 
Wilkes,  whom  Chatham  despised  and  rebuffed,  wrote 
of  him:  "He  was  born  an  orator,  and  from  nature 
possessed  every  outward  requisite  to  bespeak  respect, 
and  even  awe.  A  manly  figure,  with  the  eagle  eye  of 
the  famous  Conde,  fixed  your  attention,  and  almost 
commanded  reverence  the  moment  he  appeared,  and  the 
keen  lightning  of  his  eye  spoke  the  high  respect  of  his 
soul,  before  his  lips  had  pronounced  a  syllable.  There 
was  a  kind  of  fascination  in  his  look  when  he  eyed  any 
one  askance.  Nothing  could  withstand  the  force  of  that 
contagion.  The  fluent  Murray  has  faltered,  and  even 
Fox  shrank  back  appalled  from  an  adversarj'-  '  fraught 
with  fire  unquenchable,'  if  I  may  borrow  the  expres- 
sion of  our  great  Milton." 

As  hardly  a  single  adequate  specimen  of  Chatham's 
oratory  has  been  fully  reported,  and  even  as  we  read 
the  bald  reports  that  survive,  we  have  no  means  of 
calling  up  the  tones,  the  gestures,  and  the  look  which 


II.]  EARLY  LITE  21 

filled  them  with  living  fire,  we  must  accept  the  con- 
current witness  of  those  who  heard  him,  as  to  the 
direct  power  of  his  words.  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  has 
finely  said,  "only  a  few  flakes  of  his  fiery  oratory 
remain."  The  Memoirs  abound  in  stories  of  the  abject 
silence  in  which  the  House  would  submit  to  Pitt's 
mandates,  in  anecdotes  of  his  opponents  cowering 
under  his  invectives.  We  who  read  the  speeches  of  a 
public  man  by  our  fireside,  or  catch  some  distant 
echoes  of  his  voice  in  a  crowded  hall,  are  ready  to 
smile  at  the  tale  of  members  of  Parliament  cowering 
before  a  minister,  as  if  they  were  boys  in  the  lower 
school  before  the  inexorable  Dr.  Keate.  But  we  may 
remember  that  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  House  of  Commons  was  a  close  corpora- 
tion of  gentlemen  who  were  believed  to  be  still  under 
the  spell  of  noble  deportment  and  full  of  respect  for 
the  lofty  bearing  of  the  vieille  cour  of  Kensington  and 
Versailles. 

An  age  which  values  itself  on  being  nothing  if  not 
practical,  commonplace,  free-and-easy,  and  sceptical,  is 
wont  to  sneer  at  the  value  of  eloquence,  and  to  despise 
it  as  a  literary  artifice.  But  eloquence  is  of  two  kinds. 
There  is  the  verbose  advocacy  of  Cicero  before  the 
Praetor ;  there  is  the  heroic  appeal  of  Demosthenes  to 
his  fellow-citizens.  The  first  is  literature ;  the  second 
is  statesmanship.  How  does  a  statesman  achieve  his 
ends,  unless  it  be  by  using  words  which  convince 
others  and  fill  them  with  his  own  convictions  and 
spirit  ?  Speeches  may  be  rhetorical  displays ;  they 
may  also  be  the  trumpet  of  battle,  the  springs  of 
action,  the  determining  cause  of  great  policies  and  far- 


22  CHATHAM  [chap. 

reaching  deeds.  The  speeches  of  Mirabeau,  Danton, 
of  Washington,  of  Patrick  Henry,  or  Charles  Fox,  were 
not  rhetorical  exercises ;  they  were  strokes  of  state- 
craft and  calls  to  action.  So  in  the  main  were  those  of 
Chatham. 

All  contemporary  evidence  bears  out  the  decisive 
judgment  of  Charles  Butler  that,  quite  apart  from  his 
eloquence,  there  was  in  the  speeches  of  Chatham  that 
which  made  men  feel  there  was  "something  in  him 
finer  than  his  words;  that  the  man  was  infinitely 
greater  than  the  orator."  It  was  not  so  much  the 
rhetoric,  it  was  not  even  the  intellect,  which  conquered 
and  dominated  his  hearers.  It  was  the  moral  power, 
the  man  himself.  Frederick  of  Prussia  said, "  England 
has  brought  forth  a  mail."  The  Duke  of  Cumberland, 
the  King's  brother,  said  "that  is  a  man."  "His  great- 
ness will  bear  to  have  his  blemishes  fairly  delivered," 
said  Horace  Walpole.  He  was,  said  the  critical  Lord 
Chesterfield,  "  what  the  world  calls  '  a  great  man.' " 
Of  no  orator  in  ancient  or  in  modern  times  have  we 
more  definite  testimony  of  the  direct  power  of  his 
personality  over  those  who  hea^rd  him.  In  the  words 
of  a  contemporary :  "  Those  who  have  been  witnesses 
to  the  wonders  of  his  eloquence  —  who  have  listened  to 
the  music  of  his  voice,  or  trembled  at  its  majesty  — 
who  have  seen  the  persuasive  gracefulness  of  his 
action,  or  have  felt  its  force ;  those  who  have  caught 
the  flame  of  eloquence  from  his  eye  —  who  have 
rejoiced  at  the  glories  of  his  countenance,  or  shrunk 
from  his  frowns,  — will  remember  the  resistless  power 
with  which  he  impressed  conviction." 

Of  modern  historians  Carlyle,  with  all  the  hyper- 
bolic fanaticism  of  his  creed^  has  best  expressed  this 


n.]  EARLY  LIFE  23 

sense  of  power  in  the  man,  of  the  conviction  impressed 
by  his  words  on  those  who  heard  him  speak.  Pitt's 
speeches,  he  writes,  "are  not  Parliamentary  Eloquences, 
but  things  which  with  his  whole  soul  he  means,  and  is 
intent  to  do."  "  Pitt,  though  nobly  eloquent,  is  a  Man 
of  Action,  not  of  Speech ;  an  authentically  Royal  kind 
of  Man.  And  if  there  were  a  Plutarch  in  these  times, 
with  a  good  deal  of  leisure  on  his  hands,  he  might 
run  a  Parallel  between  Priedrich  and  Chatham.  Two 
radiant  Kings ;  very  shining  men  of  Action  both." 
Pitt's  speeches,  the  historian  of  Frederick  concludes, 
"  are  full  of  genius  in  the  vocal  kind,  far  beyond  any 
Speeches  delivered  in  Parliament :  serious  always,  and 
the  very  truth,  such  as  he  has  it ;  but  going  into  many 
dialects  and  modes ;  full  of  airy  flashings,  twinkles 
and  coruscations.     A  singularly  radiant  man." 

Many  years  had  to  pass  before  the  orator  became 
master  of  the  State.  But,  from  the  first,  Pitt's 
speeches  in  Parliament  were  rather  actions  than 
orations.  It  was  not  parliamentary  eloquence,  such 
as  was  that  of  his  son,  of  his  son's  rivals,  of  Fox,  or 
Sheridan,  or  Burke.  From  the  first,  the  words  of 
William  Pitt  were  the  strokes  of  a  man  of  action,  of 
the  fighting  man,  of  the  leader  of  men,  of  the  states- 
man. We  need  no  longer  regret  that  the  words  have 
not  been  recorded.  It  was  the  man,  not  his  words, 
which  mastered  the  nation.  The  genius  of  the  man 
was  expressed  in  acts,  in  results,  which  reacted  upon 
Europe,  on  the  East  and  the  West.  It  is  the  career  of 
the  statesman,  not  of  the  orator,  that  we  have  now 
to  follow.  It  is  Pitt,  the  creator  of  the  Empire: 
Chatham,  the  one  man  who  might  have  saved  it  from 
humiliation  and  disruption. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   RISING   ORATOR 

The  young  orator,  who  had  won  the  ear  of  the  House 
of  Commons  and  incurred  the  ill-will  of  King  and 
Ministers  by  his  maiden  speech,  steadily  advanced  in 
reputation  both  in  Parliament  and  in  the  press.  His 
dismissal  from  the  Cornetcy  gained  him  fresh  favour 
from  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  from  Lord  Cobham, 
and  it  caused  excitement  amongst  officers  of  the  army, 
who  saw  how  deep  ofl&cial  resentment  could  descend. 
Early  in  the  following  year,  1737,  Pulteney,  the  Oppo- 
sition leader,  moved  for  the  settlement  of  £100,000 
a  year  on  the  Prince,  a  project  which  Walpole  and 
George  resisted  almost  as  if  it  were  an  act  of  treason. 
Again  Pitt  supported  the  motion  with  all  his  force  in 
a  speech  which  was  said  to  be  masterly,  and  which 
certainly  caused  intense  irritation  in  the  Court.  The 
organ  of  the  Government  attacked  him  "  as  a  young 
man  of  overbearing  disposition,"  and  with  course  gibes 
told  him  that,  though  his  neck  was  long  and  his  body 
lean,  he  must  not  therefore  fancy  himself  a  "new 
Tully."  Thereupon  the  Opposition  organ  compared 
him  to  Demosthenes  in  his  youth.  Lyttelton  in 
clumsy  verse  hailed  his  friend  as  destined  to  "  lead  the 

24 


CHAP.  III.]  THE  RISING  ORATOR  25 

patriot  band."  The  poet  Thomson  hymned  praises  to 
the  "  pathetic  eloquence  "  that  moulds  "  the  attentive 
Senate  "  and  "  shakes  Corruption  on  her  venal  throne." 
Another  bard  found  in  him  "  a  Roman's  virtue  with  a 
courtier's  ease."  Lord  Cobhani  told  a  friend  that  in  a 
short  quarter  of  an  hour  Pitt  "  can  persuade  any  man 
of  anything."  After  a  fierce  debate,  the  settlement  on 
the  Prince  was  lost  by  a  small  majority.  The  King 
drove  his  son  from  St.  James's  Palace.  The  Prince 
retaliated  by  making  Pitt  groom  of  the  bed-chamber, 
and  Pitt's  cousin,  Lyttelton,  his  private  secretary. 

The  question  which  raised  Pitt  from  the  level  of  a 
brilliant  orator  to  that  of  a  political  power  was  the 
great  issue  which  absorbed  the  whole  of  his  career  and 
justifies  his  claim  to  creative  statesmanship.  It  was 
at  bottom  the  formation  of  a  transatlantic  dominion  : 
the  problem  as  to  whether  the  North  American  sea- 
board and  commerce  should  be  under  British  or 
Spanish  and  French  control.  The  international  ques- 
tions were  complex  and  inveterate,  the  rights  were 
disputed,  and  the  facts  were  uncertain.  Nor  is  this 
the  place  to  unravel  that  tangled  business.  By  ancient 
treaties,  confirmed  at  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  in  1713, 
the  trade  of  England  and  of  Spain  with  the  Atlantic 
colonies  was  limited  and  regulated.  Spain  possessed 
vast  territories  in  Central  America,  together  with  the 
West  Indies,  and  Florida.  She  asserted  a  strict 
monopoly  of  commerce  with  her  own  colonies,  to  be 
secured  by  the  right  of  search  and  of  seizing  contra- 
band goods  even  on  the  high  seas.  She  had  cross- 
claims  against  the  South  Sea  Company  for  the  supply 
of  negro  slaves  to  her  colonies,  and  had  conceded  to 


26  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Englishmen  the  privilege  of  sending  one  ship  yearly 
to  trade  in  her  ports. 

All  through  Walpole's  time  the  trade  of  England 
had  been  growing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  She  had 
thriven  under  a  policy  of  peace,  whilst  the  European 
powers  were  intriguing  and  fighting.  Along  with 
trade,  her  settlements  in  America  had  been  greatly 
enlarged.  And  ever  since  the  victory  of  La  Hogue  in 
1G92,  when  the  French  fleet  had  been  annihilated,  she 
had  made  good  her  predominance  at  sea.  In  spite  of 
treaties,  an  immense  illicit  trade  with  the  Spanish 
colonies  had  been  developed.  Contraband  had  become 
a  system.  The  one  ship  was  simply  the  blind  for  a 
whole  fleet  of  attendant  merchantmen.  For  a  time 
it  suited  the  Spanish  Government  to  submit  to  the 
British  system  of  smuggling ;  but  at  last  very  violent 
and  savage  reprisals  were  made  by  the  Spanish  coast- 
guard. These  again  were  bitterly  resented  and  grossly 
exaggerated,  so  that  the  whole  country,  the  City  and 
exchanges,  the  navy,  the  press,  and  Parliament  were 
filled  with  incessant  stories  of  outrages,  insults,  and 
spoliations,  of  which  some  were  fictions,  some  were 
exaggeration,  and  some  were  undoubtedly  true.  True 
or  false,  the  nation  from  end  to  end  was  quivering 
with  wrath  and  humiliation.  The  American  historian 
of  Sea-Power  has  said :  *'  Walpole  was  now  face  to  face 
with  one  of  those  irrepressible  conflicts  between  nations 
and  races  to  which  compromise  and  repression  can  only 
be  employed  for  a  short  time.  War  arose  out  of  the 
uncontrollable  impulse  of  the  English  people  to  extend 
their  trade  and  colonial  interests." 

There  were  causes  much  deeper  and  more   solid. 


III.]  IHE   RISING  ORATOR  27 

When  at  last  the  union  of  France  and  Spain  under 
Bourbon  princes  had  become  a  working  reality  —  that 
union  against  which  William  iii.  and  Marlborough  had 
fought  so  long — a  secret  treaty  was  made  between 
France  and  Spain,  the  Family  Compact  of  1733,  an 
essential  aim  of  which  was  an  alliance  of  the  two 
powers  to  destroy  the  maritime  ascendency  of  England, 
and  to  cripple  her  transmarine  possessions.  The 
treat}^  itself  was  not  known,  but  its  effects  were  soon 
seen,  and  its  existence  was  suspected.  A  long  series 
of  disputes  between  England  and  Spain  gathered  up : 
—  outrages  on  British  merchants,  the  boundaries  of 
Florida  with  Georgia  and  Carolina,  the  debts  of  the 
South  Sea  Company,  Gibraltar,  Minorca,  and  cross- 
claims  of  many  kinds.  The  right  of  search  is  always 
odious,  and  a  source  of  irritation  when  temporarily 
exercised  in  war.  A  permanent  right  of  search  apart 
from  a  state  of  war,  rigorously  exercised  against  peace- 
ful commerce  on  the  high  seas,  could  not  long  be 
endured  by  a  great  trading  nation,  especially  by  a 
nation  which  claimed  to  be  predominant  at  sea.  It 
was  idle  to  appeal  to  the  clauses  of  treaties  twenty- 
five  years  old,  which  had  long  been  suffered  to  lie 
dormant.  The  King,  the  merchants,  the  people,  the 
seamen,  were  all  eager  to  end  the  quarrel  by  war. 

Walpole,  still  resolute  to  maintain  his  policy  of 
peace  and  industrial  development,  resisted  the  clamour 
with  his  usual  energy  and  skill.  Deserted  or  betrayed 
by  his  own  colleagues,  and  deprived  of  the  help  of  the 
Queen,  he  still  kept  his  majority  in  Parliament,  whilst 
he  met  the  storm  of  opposition  by  masterly  sagacity, 
firmness,  and  diplomatic  genius,  till,  in  spite  of  his  own 


28  CHATHAM  [chap. 

judgment,  and  by  a  gross  sacrifice  of  principle,  lie  was 
at  last  forced  into  declaring  war  with  Spain  himself. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  under  the  letter  of 
treaties,  the  gravamen  of  the  Spanish  claim,  the  right 
in  peace  to  search  merchant  ships  on  the  high  seas 
and  confiscate  their  cargo  at  ■will,  was  technically  to 
be  justified.  In  truth,  it  cannot  now  be  doubted  that, 
on  a  balance  of  Spanish  illegalities  with  British,  the 
burden  lay  on  our  country.  Xor  was  it  long  concealed 
that  much  of  the  outcry  was  extravagant  and  artificial. 
But  a  question  far  wider  and  deeper  lay  behind.  The 
real  issue  was  this.  Was  England  to  have  the  pre- 
dominant share  in  settling  the  American  continent  and 
in  developing  the  trade  of  the  New  World  ? 

It  is  plain  that  the  war  with  Spain  could  not  be 
justified  on  moral  grounds,  hardly  by  any  view  of 
international  law.  But  we  can  now  see  that  it  was 
inevitable,  and  we  can  fairly  decide  what  have  been 
the  practical  results  of  the  war  of  1739  and  of  the 
succeeding  wars  of  George  ii.'s  reign.  The  conquest 
of  England  by  William  i.,  the  conquest  of  Wales 
by  Edward  i.,  the  trial  and  execution  of  Charles  i., 
and  the  Revolution  of  1689,  like  the  seizure  of  Silesia 
by  Frederick  ii.,  had  great  and  permanent  results,  but 
they  cannot  be  judged  by  abstract  or  legal  tests. 
Had  Walpole's  policy  of  peace  and  industry  succeeded 
in  stifling  the  indignation  of  the  nation,  had  it  been 
consistently  carried  out  by  him  and  by  his  successors 
during  the  reign  of  the  Georges,  the  nineteenth 
century  would  certainly  have  found  the  larger  part 
of  the  transatlantic  colonies  French  and  Spanish :  the 
dominion  and  trade  of  the  seas  not  very  unequally 


III.]  THE  RISING  ORATOE  29 

shared  by  the  great  European  powers :  and  England 
conceivably  in  the  position  of  a  greater  Holland. 
Some  believe  that  this  result  would  not  have  been 
injurious  to  the  progress  of  general  civilisation. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  whose  brain  and  will  it  was 
that  contrived  and  effected  a  very  different  issue. 

As  a  device  for  calming  the  growing  irritation  at 
home,  Walpole  made  a  convention  with  Spain  whereby 
the  questions  at  issue  as  to  trade,  as  to  the  limits  of 
Florida  and  Carolina,  and  the  minor  issues,  should  be 
settled  by  a  Conference;  that  Spain  would  pay  an 
indemnity  of  £95,000,  and  even  this  sum  was  reduced 
by  a  Spanish  counter-claim  at  the  last  moment  to 
£27,000.  The  announcement  of  this  Convention 
roused  a  perfect  fury  in  the  nation.  They  had  to 
pay  a  heavy  sum  for  what  the  public  had  regarded  as 
a  glorious  victory ;  the  claims  to  indemnity  for  outrage 
and  spoliation,  trifling  as  they  were,  had  to  be  set  off 
against  the  debts  of  a  trading  company  on  the  slave 
traffic ;  the  limits  of  Georgia  were  left  undefined ; 
above  all,  the  right  of  search  was  entirely  omitted,  for 
the  finesse  of  Walpole  had  made  the  fatal  blunder  of 
dropping  out  of  sight  the  real  issue  at  stake. 

It  was  on  the  8th  of  March  1739  that  the  House  of 
Commons  met  for  the  grand  attack  on  this  feeble 
expedient  to  delay  the  inevitable  war.  Such  was  the 
excitement  that  400  members  took  their  seats  at 
eight  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  Minister's  brother 
moved  a  somewhat  fulsome  address  of  congratulation 
on  "  the  final  determination  "  of  the  disputed  claims, 
on  obtaining  "  speedy  payment "  for  losses,  with  reli- 
ance that  the  King  would  protect  his  subjects  from 


80  CHATHAM  [chap. 

searcli  on  the  open  seas,  and  would  settle  the  limits  of 
his  American  dominions.  This  was  what  the  nation 
demanded,  but  the  Convention  did  nothing  of  the 
kind.  Amidst  the  torrents  of  indignant  eloquence 
poured  out  by  the  Opposition,  that  of  Pitt  is  the  most 
famous.     The  substance  is  this  :  — 

"  We  have  here  the  soft  name  of  a  humble  address  to  the 
Throne,  and  for  no  other  end  than  to  lead  to  an  approbation 
of  the  Convention.  Is  this  cursory  disquisition  of  matter  of 
such  variety  and  extent  all  we  owe  to  ourselves  and  to  our 
country?  When  trade  is  at  stake,  it  is  your  last  entrenchment; 
you  must  defendit  or  perish.  .  .  .  Here  we  are  taking  sanctuary 
in  the  Royal  name,  instead  of  meeting  openly  and  standing 
fairly  the  direct  judgment  and  sentence  of  Parliament  upon 
the  several  articles  of  this  Convention. 

*'  You  are  moved  to  vote  a  humble  address  of  thanks  to  his 
Majesty  for  a  measure  which  is  odious  throughout  the  king- 
dom. They  try  a  little  to  defend  it  on  its  own  merits ;  if 
that  is  not  tenable,  they  throw  out  general  terrors — the  House 
of  Bourbon  is  united,  who  knows  the  consequence  of  a  war? 
Sir,  Spain  knows  the  consequence  of  a  war  in  America ;  who- 
ever gains,  it  must  prove  fatal  to  her  ;  she  knows  it  and  must 
avoid  it ;  but  she  knows  that  England  dares  not  make  it.  If 
this  union  be  formidable,  are  we  to  delay  only  till  it  becomes 
more  formidable,  by  being  carried  further  into  execution  and 
by  being  more  strongly  cemented  ?  But  be  what  it  will,  is  this 
any  longer  a  nation  ?  Is  this  any  longer  an  English  Parlia- 
ment, if,  with  more  ships  in  your  harbours  than  in  all  the 
navies  of  Europe,  with  above  two  millions  of  peoi:)le  in  your 
American  colonies,  you  will  bear  to  hear  of  the  expediency  of 
receivinff  from  Spain  an  insecure,  unsatisfactory,  dishonourable 
Convention  ?  It  carries  fallacy  or  downright  subjection  in 
almost  every  line. 

"  As  to  the  great  national  objection.  Sir,  the  searching  of 
your  ships,  it  stands  merely  in  the  preamble  of  the  Convention, 
but  it  stands  there  as  the  reproach  of  the  whole,  as  the 
strongest  evidence  of  the  fatal  submission  that  follows.     Ou 


HI.]  THE  RISING  ORATOR  81 

the  part  of  Spain,  an  usurpation,  an  inhuman  tyranny,  claimed 
andexercised  over  the  American  seas.  On  the  part  of  England, 
tiiat  which  is  an  undoubted  right  by  treaties,  and  from  God 
and  nature  dechired  and  asserted  in  Parliament,  is  referred  to 
plenipotentiaries,  to  be  discussed,  limited,  and  sacrificed. 

"  The  Court  of  Spain  has  plainly  told  you  that  you  shall 
navigate  by  a  fixed  line  to  and  from  your  plantation  and  in 
America ;  if  you  draw  near  to  her  coast  (and  this  is  an  un- 
avoidable necessity)  you  shall  be  seized  and  confiscated.  If 
upon  these  terms  only  she  has  consented  to  refer  disputes, 
what  becomes  of  the  securitywhichweareflatteredtoexpect? 
I  will  take  the  words  of  Sir  William  Temple  :  —  It  is  vain  to 
negotiate  and  to  make  treaties  if  there  is  not  dignity  and  vigour 
enough  to  enforce  their  observance.  Under  the  misconstruction 
of  these  very  treaties,  this  intolerable  grievance  has  arisen. 
It  has  been  growing  upon  you,  treaty  after  treaty,  through 
twenty  years  of  negotiation.  Spain  seems  to  say,  We  will 
treat  with  you,  but  we  will  search  and  take  your  ships ;  we 
w  ill  sign  a  Convention,  but  we  will  keep  your  subjects  prison- 
ers in  Old  Spain  ;  the  West  Indies  are  remote ;  Europe  shall 
witness  in  what  manner  we  use  you. 

"The  right  claimed  by  Spain  to  search  our  ships  is  one  thing, 
and  the  excesses  admitted  to  have  been  committed  under  this 
pretended  right,  is  another.  Giving  an  indemnity  for  excesses 
is  no  cession  of  the  claim  to  search.  The  payment  of  the  sum 
stipulated  (seven  and  twenty  thousand  pounds,  and  that,  too, 
subject  to  a  draw^back)  is  evidently  a  fallacious  nominal  pay- 
ment only.  I  will  not  attempt  to  enter  into  the  detail  of  a 
dark,  confused,  and  scarcely  intelligible  account.  Can  any 
verbal  distinctions,  any  evasions  whatever,  explain  away  this 
public  infamy?  To  whom  would  we  disguise  it?  To  ourselves 
and  to  the  nation  ?  I  wish  we  could  hide  it  from  the  eyes  of 
every  court  in  Europe.  They  see  that  Spain  has  talked  to  you 
in  the  language  of  a  master. 

"  This  Convention,  Sir,  I  hold  from  my  soul  to  be  nothing  but 
a  stipulation  for  national  ignominy;  an  illusory  expedient,  to 
baffle  the  resentment  of  the  nation.  A  truce  without  a  sus- 
pension of  hostilities  on  the  part  of  Spain,  but  with  a  real 
suspension  on  the  part  of  England.     As  to  Georgia,  it  is  a 


82  CHATHAM  [chap. 

suspension  of  the  first  law  of  nature,  self-preservation  and 
self-defence.  It  is  a  surrender  of  the  rights  and  trade  of 
England  to  the  mercy  of  plenipotentiaries.  The  complaints  of 
your  despairing  merchants  and  the  voice  of  England  have 
condemned  it.  Be  theguiltof  it  upon  the  head  of  the  adviser. 
God  forbid  that  this  House  should  share  the  guilt  by  approv- 
ing it." 

These  thunderous  invectives,  the  essential  points  in 
which  were  real  and  true,  shook  the  House  and  excited 
the  nation.  The  Minister  fought  on  with  his  back 
to  the  wall ;  his  skill  and  his  prestige  secured  him 
still  a  narrow  majority.  But  within  a  few  months 
he  was  driven  into  a  war  reluctantly  undertaken  and 
feebly  conducted.  We  may  wonder  to-day  that  a 
statesman  of  the  experience  and  sagacity  of  Walpole 
should  imagine  that  diplomatic  verbiage  could  stem 
the  torrent  of  such  passion  and  such  pride.  Sound 
sense,  consummate  adroitness,  elaborate  dispatches, 
are  not  the  last  words  in  the  ruling  of  states :  nor  are 
peace  and  plenty  the  sole  life-blood  in  the  organism 
of  nations. 

The  war  was  ill-managed,  and  the  Opposition  called 
for  an  inquiry  into  the  orders  given  to  the  Admiral. 
Pitt  again  thundered  in  support  of  this  investigation 
(October  1740) :  — 

"  Our  time  cannot  be  more  usefully  employed,  during  a  war, 
than  in  examining  how  it  has  been  conducted,  and  settling  the 
degrees  of  confidence  that  may  be  reposed  in  those  to  whose 
care  are  entrusted  our  reputations,  our  fortunes,  and  our  lives. 

"  There  is  not  any  inquiry.  Sir,  of  more  importance  than 
this ;  it  is  not  a  question  about  an  uncertain  privilege,  or  a 
law  which,  if  found  inconvenient,  may  hereafter  be  repealed. 
We  are  now  to  examine  whether  it  is  probable  that  we  shall 


III.]  THE  RISING  ORATOR  38 

preserve  our  commerce  and  our  independence,  or  whether  we 
are  sinking  into  subjection  to  a  foreign  power. 

"  But  this  inquiry,  Sir,  will  produce  no  great  information,  if 
tliose  whose  conduct  is  examined  are  allowed  to  select  the 
evidence  ;  for  what  accounts  will  they  exhibit  but  such  as  have 
often  already  been  laid  before  us,  and  such  as  they  now  offer 
without  concern  ?  Accounts,  obscure  and  fallacious,  imperfect 
and  confused ;  from  which  nothing  can  be  learned,  and  which 
can  never  entitle  the  Minister  to  praise,  though  they  may 
screen  him  from  punishment." 

Such  was  the  language  used  by  the  "Great  Com- 
moner "  to  a  government  which  was  seeking  to  hood- 
wink the  nation  and  to  burke  inquiry.  Such  was  the 
responsibility  of  ministers  in  a  war  as  understood  by 
one  who  was  soon  to  "organise  victory"  himself. 
William  Pitt  was  certainly  not  too  ready  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  assurances  "  of  the  right  honourable  gentle- 
man," nor  was  he  in  the  least  afraid  of  being  accused 
of  want  of  patriotism,  if  he  presumed  to  attack  the 
government  during  the  course  of  a  war. 

At  this  time,  it  must  be  admitted,  Pitt  allowed 
himself  a  violence,  we  may  even  say  a  fury,  which 
would  shock  our  more  decorous  days.  In  1741,  a  Bill 
was  brought  in  "  for  the  encouragement  and  increase 
of  seamen,  and  for  the  better  and  speedier  manning  of 
his  Majesty's  fleet."  In  fact,  it  authorised  search- 
warrants  to  arrest  seamen  even  in  private  houses,  by 
day  or  by  night,  and  to  press  them  into  the  service. 
Although  Pitt  was  a  warm  friend  of  the  navy  and  a 
supporter  of  the  w^ar,  he  could  not  stand  this.  He 
said :  — 

"  Will  this  increase  your  number  of  seamen?  or  will  it  make 
those  you  have  more  willing  to  serve  you  ?    Can  you  expect 


34  CHATHAM  [chap. 

that  any  man  will  make  himself  a  slave  if  he  can  avoid  it? 
Can  you  expect  that  any  man  will  breed  up  his  child  to  be  a 
slave?  Can  you  expect  that  seamen  will  venture  their  lives 
or  their  limbs  for  a  country  that  has  made  them  slaves  ?  or  can 
you  expect  that  any  seaman  will  stay  in  the  country,  if  he 
can  by  any  means  make  his  escape  ?  If  you  pass  this  law,  Sir, 
you  must  do  with  your  seamen  as  they  do  with  their  galley- 
slaves  in  France  —  you  must  chain  them  to  their  ships,  or 
chain  them  in  couples  when  they  are  ashore.  .  .  .  For  God's 
sake.  Sir,  let  us  not  put  our  seamen  into  such  a  condition  as 
must  make  them  worse  than  the  cowardly  slaves  of  France  or 
Spain. 

"  I  say,  and  I  do  not  exaggerate,  we  are  laying  a  trap  for 
the  lives  of  all  the  men  of  spirit  in  the  nation.  Would  any 
of  you,  Gentlemen,  allow  this  law  to  be  executed  in  its  full 
extent  ?  If,  at  midnight,  a  petty  constable  with  a  press-gang 
should  come  thundering  at  the  gates  of  your  house  in  the 
country  and  should  tell  you  he  had  a  warrant  to  search  your 
house  for  seamen,  would  you,  at  that  time  of  night,  allow  your 
gates  to  be  opened?  I  protest,  I  would  not.  Would  any  of 
you  patiently  submit  to  such  an  indignity  ?  Would  you  not 
fire  upon  him,  if  he  attempted  to  break  open  your  gates?  I 
declare  I  would,  let  the  consequences  be  never  so  fatal ;  and 
if  you  happened  to  be  in  the  bad  graces  of  a  Minister,  the  con- 
sequence would  be,  your  being  either  killed  in  the  fray,  or 
hanged  for  killing  the  constable  or  some  of  his  gang." 

This  specimen  may  serve  to  show  the  passion  that 
Pitt  imparted  into  debate.  He  was  no  braggart,  nor 
was  he  thought  to  be  mouthing.  He  always  spoke 
without  preparation,  and  gave  full  rein  to  the  tempest 
of  his  feeling  at  the  moment.  At  the  time,  he  no 
doubt  fully  believed  himself  willing  to  shoot  the  con- 
stable and  defend  the  sanctuary  of  his  home.  And  we 
may  note  how  his  eloquence  boiled  over  with  inter- 
rogations. From  the  days  of  the  Philippics  and  Quous- 
que  tandem,  Catilina  f  impassioned  oratory  has  ever 
rested  more  in  questions  than  in  bald  asseveration. 


III.]  THE   RISING  ORATOR  35 

Other  well-known  examples  of  the  sharpness  of 
Pitt's  tongue  may  be  mentioned  here.  When  Walpole's 
brother  taunted  the  orator  with  his  youth  (by  the  way, 
he  was  thirty-two),  the  terrible  cornet  replied  —  or 
Dr.  Johnson  put  in  his  mouth,  the  famous  retort :  — 

"  The  atrocious  crime  of  being  a  young  man,  which  the 
honourable  gentleman  has  with  such  spirit  and  decency 
charged  upon  me,  I  shall  neither  attempt  to  palliate  nor  deny, 
but  content  myself  with  wishing  that  I  may  be  one  of  those 
whose  follies  may  cease  with  their  youth,  and  not  of  that 
number  who  are  ignorant  in  spite  of  experience." 

The  rest  is  surely  rank  Johnsonese,  as  when  he 
went  on:  — 

"  The  wretch  who,  after  having  seen  the  consequences  of  a 
thousand  errors,  continues  still  to  blunder,  and  whose  age  has 
only  added  obstinacy  to  stupidity,  is  the  object  of  abhorrence 
or  contempt,  and  deserves  not  that  his  grey  head  should 
secure  him  from  insults. 

"  Much  more  is  he  to  be  abhorred,  who,  as  he  has  advanced 
in  age,  has  receded  from  virtue,  and  becomes  more  wicked 
with  less  temptation ;  who  prostitutes  himself  for  money 
which  he  cannot  enjoy,  and  spends  the  remains  of  his  life  in 
the  ruin  of  his  country." 

Alas !  Sir  Kobert  Walpole  did  not  succeed  in 
muzzling  the  terrible  cornet.  And  this  is  how  he  met 
the  charge  of  his  theatrical  gestures :  — 

"  If  any  man  shall,  by  charging  me  with  theatrical  behaviour, 
imply  that  I  utter  any  sentiments  but  my  own,  I  shall  treat 
him  as  a  calumniator  and  a  villain ;  nor  shall  any  protection 
shelter  him  from  the  treatment  which  he  deserves.  I  shall  on 
such  an  occasion,  without  scruple,  trample  upon  all  those  forms 
with  which  wealth  and  dignity  entrench  themselves,  nor  shall 
anything  but  age  restrain  my  resentment ;  age,  which  always 
brings  one  privilege,  that  of  being  insolent  and  supercilious 
without  punishment. 


36  CHATHAM  [chap, 

"  The  heat  that  offended  them  is  the  ardour  of  conviction, 
and  that  zeal  for  the  service  of  my  country,  which  neither 
hope  nor  fear  shall  influence  me  to  suppress.  I  will  not  sit 
unconcerned  while  our  liberty  is  invaded,  nor  look  in  silence 
upon  public  robbery.  I  will,  at  whatever  hazard,  repel  the 
aggressor,  and  drag  the  thief  to  justice,  whoever  may  pro- 
tect them  in  their  villainy,  and  whoever  may  partake  of  their 
plunder.     And  if  the  honourable  gentleman " 

Here  the  orator  was  interrupted  by  a  call  to  order,  but 
lie  seems  to  have  silenced  and  overwhelmed  his  accuser. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  of  this  was  really 
spoken  by  Pitt.  We  may  take  it  that,  if  most  of  the 
rhetoric  was  Johnson's,  all  the  passion  was  Pitt's.  It 
is  plain  that  the  Parliament  of  the  Walpoles,  of  the 
Pelhams,  and  the  Pulteneys  was  not  very  tolerant  of 
oily  evasions,  that  fine  art  of  modern  ministers ;  and 
it  was  perfectly  familiar  with  downright  accusation 
and  gross  personalities. 

The  ill  success  of  the  war  with  Spain  increased  the 
irritation  against  Walpole,  and  in  February  1740  an 
address  was  moved  to  request  the  King  to  dismiss  his 
minister  for  ever.  The  excitement  was  great.  The 
passages  and  galleries  of  the  House  were  thronged. 
Five  hundred  members  attended,  many  of  them  at 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Pitt  took  an  active  part 
in  the  great  debate.  Unfortunately,  his  speech  has 
been  reported  in  sententious  and  stilted  Johnsonese, 
which  can  give  no  true  idea  of  what  he  said.  That  its 
substance  was  a  searching  denunciation  of  Walpole's 
ministry,  and  its  form  a  fierce  philippic  of  impetuous 
indignation,  is  clear  enough. 

Pitt  said  the  Treaty  of  Hanover  was  now  discovered 
to  be  for  the  advancement  only  of  the   House  of 


III.]  THE   RISING  ORATOE  37 

Bourbon  —  our  armies  were  kept  up  only  to  multiply 
dependence  and  to  awe  the  nation  —  Spain  had  been 
courted  only  to  the  ruin  of  our  trade  —  the  Convention 
had  been  an  artifice  to  amuse  the  people  —  the  Minister 
had  alienated  us  from  the  Empire,  our  only  friend,  and 
thus  had  endangered  the  liberties  of  Europe.  Why 
was  the  Plate  fleet  spared  ?  Why  were  our  ships 
sacrificed  to  the  worms?  Why  were  our  sailors 
poisoned  in  an  unhealthy  climate  ?  Why  do  the 
Spaniards  laugh  at  our  armaments  and  triumph  in  our 
calamities?  The  lives  of  Hosier  and  his  forces  are 
charged  against  this  man.  They  were  murdered  to 
pacify  the  British  and  to  gratify  the  French. 

A  minister  who  betrays  an  army  to  defeat,  who 
impoverishes  a  nation,  who  compels  our  armies  to 
perish  without  a  blow  in  sight  of  our  enemies — a 
minister  who  has  doomed  thousands  to  the  grave, 
who  has  co-operated  with  foreign  powers  against  his 
country,  who  has  protected  its  enemies  and  dis- 
honoured its  arms  —  such  an  one  should  lose  not  only 
his  honours,  but  his  life ;  at  least  he  should  be  stripped 
of  those  riches  he  has  amassed  during  a  long  career 
of  successful  wickedness ;  he  should  be  stopped  from 
increasing  his  wealth  by  multiplying  his  crimes. 

"  But,  Sir,  no  such  penalties  are  now  reqviired.  We 
do  not  recommend  an  Act  of  Attainder  or  a  Bill  of 
Pains  and  Penalties.  We  ask  only  that  he  be  removed 
from  that  trust  which  he  has  so  long  abused.'' 

Here  at  last  we  can  hear  the  roar  of  Pitt's  wrath 
in  the  solemn  apophthegms  of  the  pseudo- Johnson. 
All  this  was,  no  doubt,  outrageous  violence,  but  it  was 
not  empty  rhetoric.     At  the  time,  Pitt  believed  all 


4iiiG4r.3 


38  CHATHAM  [chap. 

this,  and  all  the  hot  spirits  in  the  nation  felt  the  same. 
Walpole's  majority  carried  him  through  this  onslaught. 
But  in  a  few  months  he  was  forced  to  appeal  to  the 
nation.  The  issue  went  against  him.  On  2nd  February 
1742  he  quitted  the  House  of  Commons.  On  the 
11th,  as  Earl  of  Orford,  he  resigned  office  for  ever. 

During  the  election  of  1741  Pitt  had  been  again 
returned  for  Old  Sarum.  He  took  a  dark  view  of  the 
state  of  the  country.  In  a  private  letter  to  Lord 
Chesterfield  he  said :  "  I  think  the  scene  abroad  a  most 
gloomy  one.  Whether  day  is  ever  to  break  forth 
again,  or  destruction  and  darkness  is  finally  to  cover 
all — impiaque  cBternam  meruerunt  scecula  noctem  —  must 
soon  be  determined."  "France  by  her  influence  and 
her  arms  means  to  undo  England  and  all  Europe." 
Pitt  was  perfectly  sincere  even  in  his  most  violent 
moods.  And  in  his  most  private  hours  he  was  ever 
meditating  heroics  in  what  our  critic  used  to  call  "  the 
grand  manner."    It  was  the  man's  inborn  temperament. 

Walpole's  resignation  by  no  means  abated  the  ran- 
cour with  which  he  was  pursued,  and  no  one  was  more 
bitter  than  Pitt,  who  hotly  supported  the  motion  for 
a  secret  inquiry  into  the  acts  of  the  late  administra- 
tion during  the  last  twenty  years.  They  are  pleased 
to  call  it  rhetoric,  he  said,  but  a  man  who  speaks  from 
his  heart  in  the  cause  of  his  country  naturally  uses 
vehement  expression.  When  there  is  a  general  clamour 
without  doors,  an  inquiry  is  the  only  means  of  satisfy- 
ing the  public.  We  are  not  pressing  for  an  impeach- 
ment on  specific  charges.  We  insist  on  an  inquiry  in 
order  to  see  what  specific  charges  have  to  be  made. 
The  people  will  become  disaffected  to  their  Sovereign 


in.]  THE   RISING   ORATOR  39 

if  they  find  him  obstinately  employing  a  minister  who 
oppresses  them  at  home  and  betrays  them  abroad. 
They  confess  that  our  affairs  both  at  home  and  abroad 
are  at  present  in  the  utmost  distress.  But,  say  they, 
you  must  free  yourselves  from  this  distress  before  you 
inquire  into  the  causes  of  it.  If  so,  a  minister  who  has 
plundered  and  betrayed  his  country,  has  nothing  to  do  hut 
to  involve  it  in  a  dangerous  vjar  or  some  other  great  dis- 
tress, in  order  to  prevent  an  inquiry  into  his  conduct,  just 
as  a  thief,  after  plundering  a  house,  sets  it  on  fire  that 
he  may  escape  in  the  confusion.  For  twenty  years  we 
have  been  under  one  man,  and  now  find  ourselves  on 
a  precipice.  He  is  no  longer  at  the  Treasury,  but 
he  is  not  removed  from  Court,  nor  will  his  influence  be 
withdrawn  until  he  is  sent  to  the  Tower. 

In  the  same  strain  of  violence  Pitt  denounced  the 
government  measures  as  to  the  South  Sea  Company,  as 
to  public  credit,  as  to  the  Civil  List,  as  to  the  abortive 
Excise  scheme,  as  to  the  Sinking  Fund,  as  to  the  Salt 
duty,  and  as  to  ''the  weakness  and  wickedness"  of 
many  other  measures  of  ''  our  late  (I  fear  I  must  call 
him  our  present)  Prime  Minister."  When  he  turned 
to  foreign  affairs,  Pitt  was  even  more  violent.  He 
said  the  Treaty  of  Hanover  was  the  source  of  the 
danger  to  which  Europe  is  exposed,  for  assenting  to 
which  ministers  must  have  had  some  secret,  perhaps 
some  corrupt,  motive.  They  excuse  themselves  for 
shrinking  from  war  with  Spain.  But  we  were  at  war. 
Spain  was  carrying  on  war  with  our  trade  during  the 
whole  of  their  negotiations.  Spain  knew  that  nothing 
could  provoke  that  minister  to  go  to  war,  or,  if  any- 
thing did,  it  would  be  conducted  in  a  weak  and  miser- 


40  CHATHAM  [chap. 

able  manner.  He  behaved  as  if  the  House  of  Austria 
were  our  real  enemy.  Our  warlike  preparations  were 
a  mere  electioneering  device ;  they  were  not  intended 
to  overawe  Spain  or  France.  And  then  "  the  infamous 
convention  with  Spain,"  which  sacrificed  our  trade  and 
free  navigation,  abandoned  Georgia,  and  reduced  the 
indemnity  of  £500,000  or  £600,000  to  a  paltry  £27,000. 
We  acquired  nothing ;  we  gave  up  everything. 

"  By  these  weak,  pusillanimous,  and  wicked  measures  we  are 
become  the  ridicule  of  every  court  in  Europe,  and  have  lost 
the  confidence  of  all  our  ancient  allies."  "  We  are  upon  a 
dangerous  precipice,  and  we  cannot  get  off  it  whilst  our 
councils  are  influenced  by  the  late  Minister  who  still  has  access 
to  the  King's  closet.  His  punishment,  be  it  ever  so  severe, 
will  be  but  a  small  atonement  of  the  past.  His  impunity  will 
be  the  source  of  many  future  miseries  to  Europe  as  well  as  to 
his  country.  Let  us  not  sacrifice  our  liberties  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  one  guilty  mau." 

This  thunderous  philippic  so  nearly  succeeded  that, 
in  a  division  of  486,  Walpole  only  escaped  by  two 
votes.  He  was  in  imminent  danger  of  impeachment. 
But  his  consummate  skill  in  tactics,  his  prestige  and 
sagacity,  the  confidence  of  the  King,  and  divisions 
amongst  his  enemies  saved  him  from  trial,  and  he 
gradually  regained  much  of  his  influence  and  fame. 
A  second  attempt  to  obtain  an  inquiry  was  made 
shortly  afterwards ;  and  Pitt  again  was  in  the  front  of 
the  attack.  He  began  by  repeating  many  of  the  same 
arguments  for  investigation,  but  he  added  some  out- 
rageous suspicions  floating  about,  as  that  Walpole  had 
given  Spain  and  France  secret  information.  What  is 
very  remarkable  in  Pitt's  attitude  was  this  —  that  he 
insisted    on    the    existence    of    x^^^lic    rumour    and 


III.]  THE   RISING  ORATOR  41 

popular  indignation  as  an  all-sufficient  ground  for 
parliamentary  inquiry.  "The  general  voice  of  the 
people  of  England  ought  always  to  be  a  sufficient 
ground."  Here  was  the  germ  of  one  of  the  new 
ideas  which  Pitt  was  to  infuse  into  political  life. 
"The  ill  posture  of  our  affairs  both  abroad  and 
at  home ;  the  melancholy  situation  we  are  in ;  the 
distresses  to  which  we  are  now  reduced,  are  sufficient 
cause  for  an  inquiry.  The  nation  lies  bleeding,  per- 
haps expiring.  The  balance  of  power  has  been  fatally 
reduced."  There  was  a  suspicion  too  that  public 
money  had  been  applied  to  corrupt  influence  in  elec- 
tions. Had  not  posts,  pensions,  and  preferments  been 
the  bribes  offered  for  votes  in  Parliament  ?  Had  not 
officers  in  the  army  been  promoted  or  cashiered 
according  as  they  supported  or  opposed  any  measure 
of  the  Court  ?  Whilst  a  commission  remains  at  the 
absolute  will  of  the  Crown,  the  officers  of  our  army 
will  be  the  slaves  of  a  minister,  and  will  help  him  to 
make  slaves  of  us  all.  The  orator  wound  up  with 
fierce  insinuations  about  misapplication  of  the  civil 
list  in  bribing  the  electors,  about  the  need  of  a 
general  account  of  past  treasury  payments,  how  the 
steward  of  the  nation  had  built  sumptuous  palaces 
whilst  living  beyond  his  visible  income  and  amassing 
great  riches.  And  when  ypung  Horace  Walpole  spoke 
in  defence  of  his  father,  Pitt  cried  out,  "  He  does  well 
as  the  child  of  his  father,  but  we  are  the  children  of 
our  country ! " 

In  a  house  of  497,  the  secret  Committee  was  carried 
by  a  majority  of  seven.  Pitt  himself  served  on  it; 
but  nothing  resulted  from  its  proceedings.     And  the 


42  CHATHAM  [chap. 

iniquitous  attempt  to  obtain  witnesses  by  offering 
them  an  indemnity  was  properly  extinguished  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  Such  is  a  sketch  of  Pitt's  first 
great  political  achievement  —  seciiring  the  fall  of 
Walpole.  Furious  as  was  his  attack,  and  savage  as 
were  the  suspicions  he  chose  to  make  himself  respon- 
sible for  in  Parliament,  there  was  nojjersonal  malignity 
in  his  accusations.  He  believed  them  to  be  well- 
founded:  a  majority  of  politicians  in  the  country 
believed  them  to  be  well-founded.  Some  of  the 
charges  certainly  were  well-founded.  However  high 
we  may  rank  the  peace  policy  of  Walpole's  long 
administration  of  twenty  years,  however  great  his 
services  to  the  growth  of  prosperity,  order,  and 
stability  in  the  kingdom,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
much  of  his  influence  had  been  cynical  and  grossly 
corrupt.  It  was  impossible  to  govern  a  nation  which 
was  boiling  with  irritation,  and  had  just  grounds  of 
irritation.  And  at  last  Walpole  committed  the  un- 
pardonable crime  of  entering  into  a  war  which  he 
regarded  as  a  wanton  and  useless  aggression;  and, 
what  was  even  worse,  remaining  to  carry  it  on  with 
half  a  heart  and  culpable  indifference. 

Pitt  had  acted  with  unreasoning  passion  in  a  kind 
of  patriotic  delirium ;  but  his  pleasant  altercation 
across  the  floor  of  the  House,  first  with  the  elder,  and 
then  with  the  younger  Horace  Walpole,  seemed  to 
show  that  he  was  not  actuated  by  personal  malice. 
The  story  that  he  was  a  party  to  an  underhand 
intrigue  to  screen  Walpole  upon  certain  terms  has 
been  too  hastily  accepted  by  Macaulay,  who  found  it 
in  a  later  edition  of  Coxe's  Memoirs.     A  vague  bit  of 


III.]  THE  RISING  ORATOR  43 

backstairs  gossip  repeated  five  years  after  date  by  a 
quarrelsome  fribble  like  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales, 
to  a  loose-tongued  scandalmonger  like  the  poet 
Glover,  is  not  sufficient  guarantee  for  a  story  as 
utterly  inconsistent  with  the  character  of  Pitt  as  it 
is  with  the  circumstances  of  Walpole.  To  me,  the 
tale  is  as  unintelligible  as  it  is  worthless. 

Pitt  lived  to  regret  some  of  the  violent  things  he 
had  said,  and  was  quite  as  bitter  towards  Walpole's 
successors  as  he  had  been  towards  Walpole  himself. 
And  the  large-hearted  and  sagacious  Orford  lived 
long  enough  to  recommend  Pitt  to  Henry  Pelham  for 
office  in  his  ministry.  He  wrote  to  the  Prime  Minister 
just  forming  his  new  government  —  "Pitt  is  thought 
able  and  formidable ;  try  him  or  show  him."  Pitt 
had  to  wait  twelve  years  more  before  he  was  even 
tried.  But  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  only  adminis- 
trations which  stand  forth  in  the  history  of  England 
after  that  of  Walpole,  are  those  of  Pitt  and  then  of 
Pitt's  son. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   ASPIRANT    FOR    OFFICE 

The  four  years  that  elapsed  from  the  retirement  of 
Walpole  until  Pitt  at  last,  in  his  fortieth  year,  forced 
himself  into  a  minor  office,  were  years  of  incessant 
intrigue  and  change,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  of 
European  wars,  coalitions,  and  compacts,  of  dissolving 
parties,  alliances,  and  administrations.  Pitt  all  this 
time  fought  desperately  for  his  own  hand.  He  was 
in  the  zenith  of  his  powers,  acknowledged  as  the 
greatest  orator  in  Parliament,  conscious,  perhaps  too 
conscious,  of  his  genius,  with  a  great  reputation  in  the 
country,  but  with  office  closed  to  him  by  the  rooted 
antipathy  of  the  King  and  his  own  subordinate  place 
in  that  intensely  oligarchic  world.  Power  was  the 
monopoly  of  a  set  of  great  and  wealthy  nobles,  who 
had  their  own  clans,  their  nominees  in  the  Commons, 
and  their  protectors  in  the  Royal  Family,  itself  divided 
into  different  branches  and  cliques.  The  only  one 
of  the  great  peers  who  stood  by  Pitt  was  the  famous 
Earl  of  Chesterfield,  in  some  ways  the  finest  intellect 
of  them  all,  but  a  peer  who  acted  apart  and  controlled 
no  such  powerful  combinations  as  did  the  Russells,  the 
Pelhams,  the  Cavendishes,  and  the  Grenvilles.    It  was 


CHAP.  IV.]       THE  ASPIRANT  FOR  OFFICE  45 

a  cruel  chance  that  this  able  and  honest  man  was 
permanently  debarred  from  office  by  incurable  deafness. 
The  rest  feared  Pitt  more  than  they  desired  his 
alliance.  His  proud  independence  and  his  passionate 
self-assertion  were  qualities  ill-fitted  to  succeed  in  that 
babel  of  small  intrigue,  and  insidious  fawning  on  the 
Court  and  the  magnates. 

It  would  serve  no  purpose  to  rehearse  all  the 
kaleidoscopic  changes  in  the  politics  and  the  ministries 
of  the  time.  And  he  would  be  a  daring  friend  to 
Pitt  who  attempted  to  justify  all  the  shifts  and  in- 
consistencies of  his  restless  activity.  As  Macaulay 
showed,  the  gushing  Thackeray  only  made  himself 
ridiculous  when  he  painted  his  hero  as  "a  finished 
example  of  moral  excellence."  Pitt  could  not  be 
right,  as  his  eulogist  pretends,  both  when  he  sought 
to  send  Walpole  to  the  Tower  and  also  when  he 
extolled  him,  when  he  denounced  the  Spanish  right 
of  search  in  opposition  and  when  he  submitted  to  it 
as  minister,  when  he  attacked  Newcastle  and  when 
he  joined  him,  when  he  thundered  against  subsidies 
and  when  he  lavished  them  on  foreign  allies  beyond 
all  other  ministers. 

Pitt's  career,  especially  at  this  time,  was  full  of  in- 
congruities. He  was  above  all  things  an  opportunist,  as 
we  say  to-day ;  and  in  times  of  change  a  real  states- 
man must  be  opportunist,  as  were  Cromwell,  William 
of  Orange,  Henry  iv,,  and  Richelieu.  Walpole's  fall 
was  in  part  due  to  his  obstinate  consistency  in  grasp- 
ing sole  power  for  twenty  years,  in  governing  by 
corruption  and  intrigue,  and  in  staving  off  war  at 
any  sacrifice.     In  an  age   of  change  and  confusion, 


46  CHATHAM  [chap. 

consistency  may  become  a  grave  political  fault.  It 
is  a  fault  with  Avhich  Chatham  certainly  cannot  be 
charged.  He  "was  a  man  of  passionate  impulses, 
sudden  to  condemn,  arrogant,  proud  of  his  own  virtue 
and  patriotism.  Conscious  of  his  own  high  aims  and 
his  great  superiority  to  the  men  around  him,  whose 
jealousies  and  intrigues  were  crushing  him,  Pitt  made 
not  a  few  blunders,  some  of  which  he  had  the  grace 
to  acknowledge  in  his  later  and  cooler  moods.  But 
with  all  his  outbursts,  we  may  almost  say  his  in- 
coherences, with  his  fierce  ambition,  which  in  so  great 
a  man  was  almost  a  virtue,  Pitt  remains  a  man  of 
honour,  a  patriot  of  a  grand  nature,  who  towers 
above  his  rivals  in  an  age  of  sycophancy,  corruption, 
and  treachery,  as  much  in  his  stormy  faults  as  he 
does  in  his  heroic  ideals. 

Walpole's  retirement  from  office,  but  not  from 
influence,  did  not  mean  any  great  change  in  policy, 
and  not  very  much  in  men.  The  brilliant  Carteret, 
the  vacillating  Pulteney,  the  tricky  Newcastle,  the 
learned  Hardwicke,  the  corrupt  Henry  Fox,  could  not 
control  the  great  party  which  had  been  formed  by 
the  energy  and  sagacity  of  Walpole.  Chesterfield  and 
Pitt  were  both  excluded  from  the  new  administration ; 
and  Pitt  was  as  loud  as  ever  in  opposition.  For  a 
time  Carteret  was  the  leading  minister,  engaging  in 
European  wars  and  entanglements  with  reckless  un- 
wisdom. When  he  proposed  to  Parliament  to  take 
16,000  Hanoverian  troops,  Pitt  broke  out.  Far  from 
attempting  to  conciliate  the  King,  he  sought  to  wound 
him  in  his  most  sensitive  place. 


IV.]  THE  ASPIRANT  FOR  OFFICE  47 

"  Why  should  we  squander  public  money,  he  asked,  on 
armies  which  are  only  intended  to  make  a  show  to  our  friends 
whilst  they  are  a  scorn  to  our  enemies?  These  Hanoverians 
marched  into  the  Low  Countries  as  a  place  of  security,  to 
be  farthest  from  the  reach  of  their  enemies.  In  the  next 
campaign  we  shall  be  asked  to  hire  Hanoverians  to  eat  and 
sleep.  They  tell  us  that  we  are  bound  by  England's  signature 
to  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  to  defend  the  Queen  of  Hungary. 
But  the  Elector  of  Hanover  was  equally  one  of  the  parties  to 
that  treaty.  Why  does  he  not  send  his  own  troops  to  defend 
the  Queen  ?  And  why  should  we  pay  his  troops  for  doing  that 
which  Hanover  is  bound  to  do?  This  great,  this  mighty 
nation.  Sir,  is  considered  only  as  a  province  to  a  despicable 
Electorate.  These  troops  are  hired  only  to  drain  us  of  our 
money.  Every  year  shows  this  absurd,  ungrateful,  and 
perfidious  partiality  towards  the  German  interest,  yearly 
visits  to  that  delightful  country,  sums  spent  to  aggrandise 
and  enrich  it.  Let  us  perform  our  duty  as  representatives 
of  the  people :  and  if  ministers  prefer  the  interests  of  Hanover, 
Parliament  regards  only  the  interests  of  Great  Britain." 

On  the  fulsome  address  to  the  King  on  his  return 
after  the  battle  of  Dettingen,  December  1743,  Pitt 
again  thundered  against  the  Hanoverian  policy  of  war 
in  defence  of  the  Empress-Queen. 

"  From  one  extreme  our  administration  have  run 
to  the  very  verge  of  another.  Our  former  minister 
[Walpole]  betrayed  the  interests  of  his  country  by 
his  cowardice ;  our  present  minister  [Carteret]  would 
sacrifice  them  to  his  quixotism.  Our  former  minister 
was  for  negotiating  with  all  the  world;  our  present 
minister  is  for  fighting  with  all  the  world.  Our 
former  minister  was  for  agreeing  to  every  treaty, 
however  dishonourable ;  our  present  minister  will  give 
ear  to  none,  although  the  most  reasonable  that  can  be 
desired.     Both  are  extravagant.     The  only  difference 


48  CHATHAM  [chap. 

is  that  the  wild  system  of  the  one  must  subject  the 
nation  to  much  heavier  expenditure  than  ever  did 
the  pusillanimity  of  the  other." 

The  inconsistency  of  this  from  one  who  became 
the  greatest  of  war  ministers  is  more  apparent  than 
real.  Pitt's  interest  from  the  first  was,  and  remained 
through  life,  in  the  transoceanic  empire  of  Britain, 
and  not  in  European  complications.  To  him  the 
wars  and  combinations  between  the  states  of  Central 
Europe  —  wars  and  combinations  so  dear  to  the  German 
heart  of  George  ii.  and  to  the  vapouring  ambition  of 
Carteret  —  were  sheer  waste  of  English  strength  and 
wealth.  Pitt's  ideals  were  based  on  British  commerce, 
navigation,  sea-power.  India,  the  Atlantic  provinces 
from  Cape  Breton  to  Florida,  the  West  Indies,  were 
the  aim  of  his  schemes  and  hopes.  For  them  he 
would  fight  and  tax  his  people.  To  waste  them  and 
their  resources  on  the  Elbe,  the  Rhine,  and  the 
Danube  he  ever  regarded  as  a  criminal  folly.  France 
and  Spain,  from  whom  he  wrested  their  Indian  and 
Atlantic  supremacy,  were  the  true  enemies.  Prussia, 
Austria,  or  Italy  did  not  concern  us.  And  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  founder  of  our  transmarine 
empire  Pitt  was  undoubtedly  right. 

Pitt  went  on  to  complain  that  we  had  not  pressed 
the  Queen  of  Hungary  to  come  to  terms  with  Frederick 
of  Prussia  when  he  seized  Silesia.  He  complained  of 
our  joining  the  coalition  against  Frederick.  It  was 
done  in  the  interest  of  Hanover.  What  should  have 
been  done  was  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between 
the  Princes  of  Germany,  in  order  to  establish  a  new 
balance  of  power.     We  ought  to  have  embraced  the 


IV.]  THE  ASPIRANT  FOR   OFFICE  49 

opportunity  of  peace  and  have  insisted  on  it,  instead 
of  urging  the  Queen  to  resist  Prussia  and  France, 
when  we  might  have  arranged  things  on  the  terms  of 
Uti  jwssidetis. 

He  then  fiercely  attacked  the  conduct  of  the  war, 
going  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  ardour  of  the  British 
troops  had  been  restrained  by  the  cowardice  of  the 
Hanoverians,  that  we  had  left  to  the  enemy  after  our 
fortunate  escape  and  so-called  victory  the  burial  of 
our  own  dead.  And  he  actually  sneered  at  the 
assumption  that  the  King  had  been  exposed  to  any 
real  danger  in  battle.  Nay,  it  is  reported  that  in 
his  fury  Pitt  called  Carteret  "an  execrable,  a  sole 
minister,  who  had  renounced  the  British  nation,  and 
seemed  to  have  drunk  of  the  potion  described  in 
poetic  fictions  which  made  men  forget  their  country." 

With  all  its  exaggerations,  Pitt's  policy  in  the  matter 
■was  sound.  George  ii.  and  Carteret  were  indeed  pur- 
suing an  aim  which  was  not  British,  but  Hanoverian. 
Walpole  himself  might  have  made  the  speech  with  a 
cooler  judgment,  more  tolerance,  and  less  violence. 
But  Pitt  was  here  in  substance  the  true  English 
statesman. 

A  few  days  later  Pitt  resumed  his  attack  on  the 
whole  Hanoverian  policy.  His  Majesty,  he  said,  stood 
on  the  brink  of  a  precipice.  It  was  the  duty  of 
Parliament  to  snatch  him  from  that  gulf  where  an 
infamous  minister  had  placed  him.  The  general  of 
the  English  army  had  not  been  consulted.  The  great 
person  himself  (the  King)  had  been  hemmed  in  by 
German  officers,  and  one  English  minister.  Every 
symptom  of  some  dreadful  calamity  attends  the  nation. 


50  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Again  he  said,  "It  would  be  happy  for  this  country  if 
the  sober  maxims  and  well-weighed  councils  of  the 
Dutch  government  had  an  influence  upon  ours,  which, 
he  insinuated,  were  under  the  direction  of  a  desperate 
and  rodomontading  minister."  Mr.  Gladstone  never 
used  such  language  of  Mr.  Disraeli  in  1879,  nor  did 
Mr.  Morley  use  such  language  of  Lord  Milner  in  1899. 

In  January  1744  it  was  again  proposed  to  vote 
£634,344  to  send  21,000  men  to  Flanders  to  be  em- 
ployed in  support  of  Maria  Theresa.  This  Pitt  opposed 
with  his  usual  vehemence.  He  protested  against 
continuing  to  assist  the  Queen  of  Hungary  in  a  war 
with  France,  and  especially  against  sending  an  army 
to  Flanders.  The  scheme  was  so  absurd  that  it  must 
be  a  pretext  to  cover  the  maintenance  of  16,000 
Hanoverians  and  to  add  territory  to  the  Electorate. 
We  should  never  assist  our  allies  on  the  Continent  with 
any  great  number  of  men  —  hut  only  loith  our  money  and 
our  ships.  We  ought  to  have  at  home  as  few  soldiers 
as  possible.     Soldiers  are  a  danger  to  liberty. 

How  all  this  was  to  be  reconciled  with  Pitt's  invec- 
tives against  Walpole,  with  his  owti  acts  as  Prime 
Minister,  and  those  of  his  son  after  him,  is  not  self- 
evident.  But  whatever  its  inconsistency,  Pitt's  argu- 
ment was  the  sound  and  patriotic  policy.  It  was  the 
policy  of  Walpole  at  his  best.  But  now,  strangely 
enough,  the  war  policy  of  the  King  and  Carteret  was 
being  assisted  by  the  fallen  minister  in  secret.  Pitt 
was  answered  by  Murray,  the  solicitor-general,  but 
he  held  his  ground  with  a  high  spirit,  covering  the 
Hanoverians  with  his  sarcasms,  and  winding  up  with 
the  truly  Dantonesque  trope  that  "the  passing  the 


IV.]  THE  ASPIRANT  FOR  OFFICE  51 

question  will  be  to  erect  a  triumphal  arch  to  Hanover 
over  the  military  honour  and  independence  of  Great 
Britain." 

It  was  of  this  famous  duel  between  Pitt  and  the 
great  Lord  Mansfield  (as  Murray  became)  that  James 
Oswald,  Adam  Smith's  honest  friend,  wrote  his  well- 
known  criticism.  "  The  one  spoke  like  a  pleader,  and 
could  not  divest  himself  of  a  certain  appearance  of 
having  been  employed  by  others.  Pitt  spoke  like  a 
gentleman,  like  a  statesman,  who  felt  what  he  said, 
and  possessed  the  strongest  desire  of  conveying  that 
feeling  to  others,  for  their  own  interest,  and  that  of 
their  country.  Murray  gains  your  attention  by  the 
perspicuity  of  his  arguments,  and  the  elegance  of  his 
diction.  Pitt  commands  your  attention  and  respect  by 
the  nobleness,  the  greatness  of  his  sentiments,  the 
strength  and  energy  of  his  expressions,  and  the  cer- 
tainty you  are  in  of  his  always  rising  to  a  greater 
elevation  both  of  thought  and  style.  For  this  talent 
he  possesses  beyond  any  speaker  I  ever  heard,  of  never 
falling  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  speech, 
either  in  thought  or  expression.  ...  I  think  him 
sincerely  the  most  finished  character  I  ever  knew." 

That  Pitt  was  no  factious  place-hunter  is  sufficiently 
proved  by  his  conduct  at  the  great  Jacobite  raid.  In 
February  1744  it  was  clear  that  England  was  threatened 
with  a  serious  French  invasion,  in  conjunction  with  a 
rising  on  behalf  of  the  Stuart  Pretender.  Pelham 
moved  an  address  to  the  King  to  raise  such  forces  by 
sea  and  land  as  he  might  think  necessary.  Pitt  sup- 
ported this  new  military  increase  with  all  the  passion 
that  he  had  just  poured  on  the  expedition  to  Flanders. 


52  CHATHAM  [chap. 

He  did  not  believe  there  was  any  real  danger,  but  lie 
heartily  supported  the  minister  in  taking  all  needful 
precautions.  In  fact,  a  French  force  of  7000  actually 
sailed,  but  they  were  driven  back  by  the  weather  at 
sea,  and  the  Pretender  had  to  adjourn  his  enterprise. 
In  March,  Louis  xv.  declared  war  in  earnest.  One 
hundred  thousand  men  under  Marshal  Saxe  carried  all 
before  them  in  Flanders,  and  the  British  and  their 
allies  were  completely  overpowered.  Public  indigna- 
tion drove  from  office  Lord  Carteret,  who  had  now 
become  Lord  Granville,  but  he  still  retained  the  con- 
fidence of  the  King. 

The  Pelhams  were  now  masters  of  the  situation,  and 
proceeded  to  form  a  broad  ministry  so  as  to  include 
the  Patriots  and  the  Cousinhood  of  the  Temples.  But 
all  their  efforts  failed  to  shake  the  rooted  antipathy 
of  the  King  to  Pitt,  though  he  now  detached  himself 
from  the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  was  left  out  in  the 
cold,  though  Lyttelton  and  George  Grenville  were 
admitted.  The  hostility  of  the  Court  only  added  to 
Pitt's  popularity  with  the  public.  Sarah,  the  old 
Duchess  of  Marlborough,  by  her  will  left  him  the  sum 
of  £10,000  "upon  account  of  his  merit,  in  the  noble 
defence  he  has  made  for  the  support  of  the  laws  of 
England,  and  to  prevent  the  ruin  of  his  country." 
The  money  was  sorely  needed  by  the  almost  penniless 
patriot,  and  of  course  the  wits  attributed  the  change 
in  his  attitude  to  his  accession  of  fortune.  It  did 
indeed  require  no  little  explanation  to  justify  the 
change,  when,  in  January  1745,  Pitt  supported  the 
government  in  their  demand  for  28,000  men  to  be 
employed  in  Flanders. 


TV.]  THE   ASPIRANT  FOR  OFFICE  53 

He  was  ill  with  the  gout ;  but,  in  flannels  and  on 
crutches,  he  came  down  to  the  House  and  opened  a 
grandiloquent  oration  that,  if  this  were  to  be  the  last 
day  of  his  life,  he  would  spend  it  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  for  he  thought  the  state  of  the  country- 
was  even  worse  than  that  of  his  own  health.  As  the 
House  listened  with  patience  to  this  tragic  opening 
from  a  man  of  thirty-seven,  he  went  on  to  say  how 
greatly  the  whole  situation  had  been  changed  by  the 
retirement  of  Lord  Carteret-Granville.  He  inveighed 
against  "  that  fatal  influence,"  multiplying  war  on  war 
in  romantic  schemes  of  conquest  to  benefit  Austria, 
but  not  Great  Britain.  He  rehearsed  all  the  misdeeds 
of  Carteret,  whom  not  ten  men  in  all  the  nation 
would  follow.  But  he  had  confidence  in  Mr.  Pelham, 
his  patriotism  and  his  capacity,  and  believed  him  to 
be  now  pursuing  moderate  and  healing  measures. 
"He  thought  a  dawn  of  salvation  to  this  country 
had  broken  forth,  and  was  determined  to  follow  it 
as  far  as  it  would  lead  him.  .  .  .  Should  he  find  him- 
self deceived,  nothing  would  be  left  but  to  act  with 
an  honest  despair."  All  that  needs  to  be  said  about 
this  memorable  conversion  is,  that  Carteret-Granville, 
who  knew  more  about  the  state  of  Europe  than  Pitt, 
or  any  other  Englishman,  was  essentially  reckless, 
visionary,  and  arrogant,  whilst  Henry  Pelham  was 
cautious,  practical,  and  moderate.  And  the  dangers 
to  England,  which  were  distant  and  unreal  when 
George  ii.  first  began  to  meddle  in  the  Austrian 
succession,  had  become  very  real  and  very  close  when 
France  had  prepared  to  invade  us,  when  Charles 
Stuart  was  hovering  over  Scotland,  and  a  Jacobite 
rising  was  imminent  in  England. 


54  CHATHAM  [chap. 

During  the  Scotch  rebellion  of  1745,  which  might 
have  been  serious  if  the  French  had  landed  their  force, 
and  if  the  Pretender  had  possessed  real  energy  and 
skill,  Pitt  stood  firmly  by  the  government,  and  showed 
ardent  loyalty  to  the  Hanoverian  dynasty.  This 
patriot,  and  favourite  of  the  people,  resisted  a  crude 
proposal  for  parliamentary  reform.  ''Is  it  now  a 
time,"  he  said,  "  to  sit  contriving  bills  to  guard  our 
liberties  from  corruption,  when  that  very  liberty, 
when  everything  else  dear  to  us,  are  in  danger  of 
being  wrested  from  us  in  arms  ?  When  thieves  have 
burst  into  the  mansion,  the  fool  only  would  plan  out 
methods  to  prevent  the  fraud  of  his  servants."  In 
fact,  Pitt  had  now  definitely  become  a  friend  to  the 
ministry  in  which  the  two  Pelhams  were  the  pre- 
dominant power.  He  paid  compliments  to  Henry 
Pelham,  and  profuse  court  to  the  Duke,  his  brother. 

The  Duke  of  Newcastle  had  irritated  the  King  by 
pressing  on  him  the  appointment  of  Pitt  as  secretary 
of  war,  and  George,  who  had  never  liked  or  trusted 
his  present  ministers,  tried  a  coup  de  main  by  recalling 
Granville  and  Bath,  i.e.  Carteret  and  Pulteney.  Their 
forty-eight  hours'  ministry  vanished  in  air  before  the 
country  knew  of  its  existence.  The  Pelhams  returned 
stronger  than  ever.  This  time,  they  insisted  on  having 
Pitt  as  their  colleague.  Others  who  were  his  political 
opponents  joined  in  the  same  advice.  Horace  Walpole, 
Lord  Orford's  younger  brother,  even  drew  up  a  me- 
morial to  the  King  to  show  the  importance  of  making 
Pitt  secretary  of  war.  At  last  the  King  gave  way.  He 
insisted  that  he  would  not  have  such  a  man  about 
his  person.      And  Pitt,  with  unusual  humility,  pro- 


IV.]  THE   ASPIRANT   FOR   OFFICE  65 

tested  that  he  did  not  seek  to  enter  the  royal  closet. 
At  last,  it  was  the  22nd  February  1745,  Pitt  was 
appointed  Paymaster  and  Treasurer  of  War  in  Ire- 
land. On  the  6th  of  February  following  he  was 
appointed  Paymaster  in  England.  He  was  now 
thirty-eight,  and  had  been  eleven  years  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  Horace  Walpole  wrote  that  he  had 
taken  the  place  "  by  storm." 

This  subordinate  office  is  remarkable  chiefly  for  the 
public  proof  it  gave  of  Pitt's  integrity.  The  age,  it 
has  been  said,  was  one  in  which  anything  short  of 
actual  embezzlement  of  public  money  was  regarded 
as  fair  in  the  game  of  party  preferment.  No  one  has 
ever  shown  whence  Walpole  derived  the  enormous 
sums  he  spent  on  Houghton.  Henry  Fox,  Pitt's  con- 
temporary and  rival,  notoriously  amassed  a  large 
fortune  from  office.  The  practice  in  the  Paymaster's 
Office  had  long  been  to  retain  £100,000  in  advance, 
which  brought  an  annual  return  of  several  thousand 
pounds  to  the  private  purse  of  the  fortunate  holder. 
It  was  considered  that  so  lucrative  an  appointment 
would  console  Pitt  for  his  exclusion  from  the  Cabinet. 
He  was  a  poor  man,  who  long  lived  on  the  bounty  of 
others ;  at  the  same  time  he  was  extravagant  and 
ostentatious  to  the  point  of  ridicule.  But  he  utterly 
refused  to  touch  a  penny  of  the  interest  on  this 
£100,000,  or  anything  beyond  his  legal  salary. 

Again,  it  was  usual,  when  Parliament  granted  sub- 
sidies to  a  foreign  power,  for  the  Paymaster  to  receive 
a  douceur  of  one-half  per  cent,  as  his  perquisite.  This 
degrading  practice,  sanctioned  by  the  most  respectable 
of  his  predecessors,  revolted  the  spirit  of  Pitt.     To 


66  CHATHAM  [chap.  iv. 

have  yielded  to  it  would  soon  have  placed  him  in 
great  wealth.  He  rigidly  refused  to  avail  himself 
of  the  rule.  When  a  subsidy  was  voted  to  the  King 
of  Sardinia,  Pitt  declined  to  retain  the  usual  commis- 
sion. The  foreign  king,  with  many  expressions  of 
admiration,  begged  to  be  allowed  to  offer  him  the 
amount  as  a  royal  present  from  himself.  This  Pitt 
firmly  and  respectfully  declined.  On  no  occasion  was 
he  even  suspected  of  the  slightest  attempt  to  benefit 
by  his  official  trust.  And  his  absolute  integrity 
throughout  his  public  career  is  vouched  for  by  his 
enemies  and  his  satirists.  Pitt  was  not  the  man  to 
let  his  burning  zeal  for  public  duty  remain  under 
a  bushel.  It  greatly  enhanced  his  reputation  in  the 
nation.  But  it  stands  recorded  that  Chatham  was  the 
first  great  statesman  to  extinguish  that  curse  of 
corruption  which  had  afflicted  English  politics  since 
the  Kestoration,  as  William  Pitt,  the  son,  was  the 
statesman  who  finally  established  strict  honour  in  the 
public  service. 


CHAPTER  V 

IN   SUBORDINATE    OFFICE 

The  ten  years  that  passed  from  Pitt's  attaining  to 
subordinate  office  until  he  was  at  last  admitted  to 
the  Cabinet,  formed  a  time  of  petty  intrigues  at  home, 
European  complications  abroad,  inglorious  war,  and 
public  discontent.  It  is  the  period  of  Pitt's  career 
which  is  marked  by  his  most  glaring  inconsistencies, 
wherein  it  is  least  possible  to  acquit  him  of  factious 
manoeuvres  and  a  purely  self-interested  ambition.  He 
thirsted  for  power,  not  for  money  nor  for  influence, 
but  with  a  gnawing  passion  to  be  able  to  carry  out 
his  great  designs,  and  to  put  an  end  to  the  sordid 
bungling  of  his  official  chiefs.  He  found  the  way 
barred  to  him  by  the  personal  antipathy  of  the  King 
and  the  jealous  rivalry  of  the  oligarchic  clans.  He 
would  yield  neither  to  the  Court  nor  to  the  magnates ; 
he  would  hold  firm  to  the  nation,  not  to  its  sovereign ; 
he  would  stand  by  his  own  independence,  and  never 
sink  to  be  a  docile  placeman.  In  this  dilemma,  he 
struck  out  right  and  left  at  the  Ministry  he  now 
served,  or  at  the  Opposition  he  had  now  quitted,  as 
for  the  time  it  seemed  to  offer  a  chance  for  his  forcing 
his  way  to  power,  for  his  making  the  official  parties 
fear  his  attacks,  or  for  convincing  the  King  at  last 

67 


58  CHATHAM  [chap. 

that  he  was  indispensable.  If  his  conduct  was  dis- 
honourable, it  was  the  kind  of  dishonour  with  which 
all  English  politicians  have  been  charged,  and  of  which 
few  have  been  entirely  guiltless.  I  shall  not  attempt 
the  task  of  defending  all  these  manoeuvres.  I  shall 
state  them  fairly,  not  seeking  to  palliate  them,  nor 
pretending  to  judge  them  from  a  true  standard  of 
honour  and  patriotism. 

It  can  hardly  be  gainsaid  that  Pitt  was  now  resolved 
to  throw  himself  heartily  into  the  party  of  the 
Pelhams.  Henry  Pelham  was  a  man  of  sense  and 
character,  a  mild  edition  of  Walpole,  with  a  timid 
wish  to  carry  on  much  the  same  policy.  His  brother, 
the  Duke,  was  an  arch  time-server,  whose  secret  pur- 
pose was  to  gain  the  favour  of  the  King.  In  the  result 
King  George  managed  to  continue  the  Hanoverian 
policy  of  subsidies,  wars,  and  European  imbroglios. 
And  in  effect  Pitt,  who  held  a  minor  office  without  any 
control  of  general  policy,  is  found  to  be  passionately 
advocating  what  was  practically  the  very  system  he 
had  so  long  denounced.  His  eulogist  tries  to  show 
that,  feeling  himself  powerless  to  resist,  Pitt  consented 
to  remain  silent.  But  he  did  not  at  all  remain  silent 
or  obscure.  His  eloquence,  he  being  the  tool  of  New- 
castle, who  was  the  tool  of  the  King,  carried  through 
Parliament  the  very  measures  he  used  to  assail.  There 
are  some  excuses  for  this  desertion  of  all  the  principles 
on  which  his  great  reputation  had  been  based.  The 
Jacobite  rising,  a  French  war  and  prospect  of  invasion, 
had  thoroughly  roused  him  to  the  need  of  supporting 
the  old  Whig  connection.  He  had  become  a  warm 
friend  to  the  Hanoverian  dynasty,  had  parted  with  a 


v.]  IN  SUBORDINATE   OFFICE  59 

factious  Prince  of  Wales,  and  had  attached  himself  to 
the  fighting  Duke  of  Cumberland.  The  foreign  policy 
of  Pelham,  in  spite  of  all  its  subsidies  and  treaties,  was 
a  totally  different  thing  from  that  of  Carteret.  It  was 
much  less  wanton,  and  had  more  purpose  and  excuse. 
These  things  may  have  enabled  Pitt  to  persuade  him- 
self that  he  was  acting  in  good  conscience.  They  are 
not  enough  to  acquit  him  at  the  bar  of  history  of  time- 
serving and  insincerity. 

However  subordinate  and  detached  was  the  office  he 
held,  he  was  the  greatest  living  force  in  debate,  and 
the  ministry  relied  on  his  support.  Pelham  told  his 
brother,  the  Duke,  that  Pitt  had  the  dignity  of  Wynd- 
ham,  the  wit  of  Pulteney,  the  knowledge  and  judg- 
ment of  Walpole.  It  needed,  indeed,  a  preposterous 
compliment  to  explain  away  Pitt's  supporting  the  pay- 
ment of  18,000  Hanoverians  in  Flanders  ;  his  defend- 
ing the  treaties  with  Spain  and  Bavaria ;  his  recanting 
his  resistance  to  the  Spanish  "  right  of  search."  All 
that  can  be  said  of  this  is,  that  he  loudly  asserted  now 
that  he  had  been  entirely  wrong.  The  one  thing  he 
would  not  surrender  was  his  resistance  to  any  reduc- 
tion of  the  fleet.  He  opposed  the  government  on  this 
point,  as  he  constantly  did,  but  he  did  so  with  profuse 
protestations  of  his  devotion  to  the  great  party  to 
which  he  said  he  would  hold  on  through  life.  Here 
again  is  a  mark  that  all  Pitt's  inmost  hopes  and  ideals 
lay  beyond  the  narrow  seas.  He  could  play  fast  and 
loose  with  European  politics.  He  was  ever  true  to  his 
pursuit  of  Sea  Power.  "  The  sea  is  our  natural 
element,"  he  had  said  in  his  great  speech  of  1744 
against  the  expedition  to  Flanders. 


60  CHATHAM  [chap. 

From  this  time  begins  the  long  rivalry  between  Pitt 
and  Henry  Fox,  such  as  was  renewed  between  their 
sons  half  a  century  later.  Both  Fitt  and  Fox  were 
straining  every  nerve  to  gain  power  —  Fox  all  wit, 
adroitness,  cynicism,  and  greed;  Pitt  all  passion, 
patriotism,  arrogance,  and  indiscretion.  For  the  mo- 
ment both  found  it  their  interest  to  rally  round  the 
Pelhams  and  support  the  cause  of  the  King.  Pitt  was 
now  an  ardent  ministerialist  —  be  the  measures  under 
debate  large  or  small,  old  or  new,  liberal  or  tory.  The 
acute  and  cool  Pelham  wrote  again  to  Newcastle,  "  I 
think  him  (Pitt)  the  most  able  and  useful  man  we 
have  amongst  us ;  truly  honourable  and  strictly 
honest."  Was  it  a  bill  to  subject  half-pay  navy 
officers  to  martial  law  ? — Pitt  supported  it !  The  "  New 
Mutiny  Bill"  subjected  half-pay  soldiers  to  martial 
law.  Pitt  supported  the  clause  with  his  usual  fury. 
"  We  must  trust  to  the  virtue  of  the  army  :  without 
this  virtue,  even  should  the  Lords,  the  Commons,  and 
the  people  of  England  entrench  themselves  behind 
parchment  up  to  the  teeth,  the  sword  will  find  a 
passage  to  the  vitals  of  the  Constitution."  It  is  not 
easy  to  see  where  the  vitals  of  the  Constitution  come 
in.  But  in  the  heroic,  or  what  Horace  Walpole  called 
the  Pittic,  style,  the  Bill  seemed  big  with  military 
despotism.  Pitt  was  willing  to  risk  this  in  reliance  on 
"  the  virtue  "  of  our  army.  He  did  not  remember  that 
but  a  year  or  two  before  he  had  thundered  out  that 
"  the  man  who  solely  depends  upon  arms  for  bread, 
can  never  be  a  good  subject,  especially  in  a  free 
country." 

Did  the  ministers  propose  a  grant  of  £10,000  to  the 


v.]  IN   SUBORDINATE  OFFICE  61 

City  of  Glasgow  to  indemnify  it  from  the  exactions 
made  by  the  Pretender  in  1745,  whilst  they  left 
Carlisle  and  Derby  without  compensation  ?  The 
thunder  of  Pitt  again  resounded  through  the  House 
in  support  of  the  grant.  "  I  am  shocked,  Sir,  that 
such  a  question  should  stand  a  debate  in  a  British 
House  of  Commons.  Had  the  rebels  succeeded  in 
their  flagitious  attempt,  and  called  a  slavish  Parlia- 
ment, I  should  not  have  wondered  to  see  such  a  ques- 
tion opposed  in  a  House  of  Commons  assembled  by 
their  authority."  And  so  forth  in  a  long  and  passion- 
ate speech,  calling  all  who  opposed  him  Jacobites, 
ending  with,  <'  Their  ruin  must  be  inevitable,  or  the 
relief  must  be  granted !  "  All  this  about  a  grant  of 
£10,000  to  the  corporation  of  a  city,  the  valuation  of 
which  is  now  some  five  millions  sterling.  The  "  march 
to  Derby  "  and  the  French  invasion  made  a  real  revo- 
lution in  British  politics ;  but  one  of  its  incidental 
effects  was  to  make  Pitt  the  first  lieutenant  of  the 
Pelhams,  and  for  the  time  even  "  a  King's  man." 

When  it  was  moved  that  no  soldier  should  be  pun- 
ished unless  by  court-martial,  Pitt,  even  in  this  "  free 
country,"  would  not  hear  of  the  conduct  of  the  army 
or  soldiers'  complaints  being  mentioned  in  Parliament. 
"We  have  no  business  with  siich  matters;  those 
are  subjects  which  belong  to  the  King."  Did  Lord 
Egmont,  now  "the  Prince's  man,"  move  for  papers 
relating  to  the  demolition  of  Dunkirk,  Pitt  defended 
the  ministry  for  refusing  them.  "It  was  not  only 
impolitic,  but  dangerous,  tending  to  involve  the  nation 
in  another  war  with  Prance."  The  fire-eating  and 
terrible  cornet  of    horse    now  had    a   conscientious 


62  CHATHAM  [chap. 

horror  of  war  such  as  Walpole  might  have  envied. 
The  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  "  absolutely  neces- 
sary for  our  very  being." 

In  January  1751  Pitt  made  a  speech  in  favour  of  the 
annual  subsidy  of  £40,000  to  the  Elector  of  Bavaria. 
"The  treaty  with  Bavaria  was  founded  in  the  best 
political  wisdom ;  it  was  a  wise  measure,  tending  most 
effectually  to  preserve  the  balance  of  power  in  Ger- 
many, and  of  course  the  tranquillity  of  Europe." 
"  The  treaty  with  Spain  was  a  wise  and  advantageous 
measure."  Lord  Egmont,  an  opposition  leader,  re- 
minded him  that  this  wise  treaty  made  no  mention  of 
the  British  resistance  to  the  right  of  search.  Yes! 
said  Pitt,  he  had  once  been  for  No  Search  —  "  but  he 
was  a  young  man  then ;  he  was  now  ten  years  older, 
and  considered  public  affairs  more  coolly  " ;  and  now 
he  saw  that  the  claim  for  No  Search  could  not  be 
maintained  against  Spain.  Pitt  never,  at  any  time  of 
his  life,  considered  things  coolly,  unless  this  astounding 
avowal  may  be  considered  "  cool."  Tempora  mutantur 
(i.e.  administrations)  nos  et  mutamur  in  illis.  In  one 
thing  only  did  Pitt  not  change  his  coat  to  please  a 
minister.  The  government  asked  for  8000  seamen  for 
the  year.  Motion  made  for  a  vote  of  10,000.  Pitt 
supported  the  amendment,  minister  as  he  was  himself, 
and  Paymaster.  "  The  fleet,"  said  he  in  his  grandiose 
way,  "  the  fleet  is  our  standing  army."  Pitt  was  the 
Captain  Mahan  of  his  own  age. 

The  petty  struggle  went  on  now  with  three  princi- 
pal factions —  first,  the  Pelhams  together  with  Pitt; 
then,  the  Duke  of  Bedford's  party,  with  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland  and  Pox ;  thirdly,  the  Prince  of  Wales's 


v.]  IN   SUBORDINATE   OFFICE  63 

set,  with  Lord  Bute,  Lord  Egmont,  and  the  wrecked 
genius  of  Lord  Bolingbroke  —  him  whom  Pitt  once 
spoke  of  as  "  the  late  Bolingbroke  of  impious  mem- 
ory." The  sudden  death  of  the  Prince  in  March  1751 
caused  a  new  shuffling  of  the  cards.  As  the  young 
George  was  but  twelve,  a  Regency  Bill  became  urgent. 
The  struggle  took  place  between  the  partisans  of  the 
Princess  Mother  and  those  of  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land. Pitt  stood  by  the  Princess,  Fox  stood  by  the 
Duke ;  and  a  lively  oratorical  duel  resulted,  in  which 
it  would  seem  that  Pitt  had  the  best  of  it  both  in 
temper  and  in  eloquence. 

The  Prince's  death  and  the  Regency  Act  so  com- 
pletely shattered  the  opposition  that  the  Pelhams 
contrived  to  get  rid  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  his 
followers,  and  actually  made  the  once  fiery  and  bril- 
liant Carteret-Granville  President  of  the  Council. 
Pitt's  "  execrable  minister "  was  now  an  extinct  vol- 
cano and  a  drunkard ;  and  Pitt  and  he  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  remaining  peaceful  colleagues.  For  some 
time  the  Pelham  administration  led  the  most  tranquil 
existence  ever  known  to  Parliament  —  Henry  Pelham, 
timid,  moderate,  wise ;  the  Duke,  his  brother,  restless 
in  petty  manoeuvres  ;  Pitt,  Fox,  Murray,  all  support- 
ing the  government  for  the  hour,  while  each  aspired 
to  succeed  it.  In  the  midst  of  the  calm,  Henry 
Pelham,  a  strong  man  of  sixty,  was  carried  off  by  a 
sudden  attack. 

The  wild  struggles  for  place  which  thereupon 
ensued  fill  many  a  lively  page  in  the  memoirs  and 
correspondence  of  the  time.  Pitt  was  at  Bath  very 
ill  of  the  gout ;  but  he  wi-ote  to  his  friend  Lyttelton, 


64  CHATHAM  [chap. 

urging  him  to  push  his  claims  to  Hardwicke,  the 
Chancellor,  "  whose  wisdom,  firmness,  and  authority  " 
he  extols.  He  wrote  imploringly  to  Newcastle  as  the 
"unalterable  humble  servant  to  your  Grace."  The 
overbearing  Pitt  indeed  now  prostrated  himself  before 
all  who  held  the  keys  to  the  Cabinet.  It  was  in  vain. 
The  King  was  inexorable.  All  Pitt's  passionate  advo- 
cacy of  the  subsidies,  all  his  defence  of  the  Hano- 
verian dynasty,  could  not  wash  out  the  old  affronts, 
Pitt  might  overawe  the  House  of  Commons,  but  he 
had  neither  party  nor  clan  at  his  back.  Newcastle 
wanted  him  as  a  colleague,  but  he  feared  him  as  a 
rival;  Lyttelton,  from  misunderstanding  or  jealousy, 
served  Pitt  but  ill,  and  they  became  bitterly  estranged 
when  Lyttelton  and  Grenville  were  taken  and  Pitt 
was  left  outside  the  Council. 

Pitt  was  deeply  mortified.  He  wrote  to  Newcastle 
a  letter  full  of  pride  and  despair.  He  was  manifestly 
excluded  from  office,  he  said,  by  a  personal  veto.  He 
had  no  wish  but  to  retreat  —  "  Not  a  retreat  of  resent- 
ment, but  of  respect,  and  of  despair  of  being  ever 
accepted  to  equal  terms  with  others,  be  his  poor 
endeavours  what  they  may."  Very  few  had  been  the 
honours  and  advantages  of  his  life.  He  hopes  that 
some  retreat  neither  dishonourable  nor  disagreeable 
may  be  opened  to  him.  To  Lord  Hardwicke  he  wrote : 
"  My  Lord,  after  having  set  out  under  suggestions  of 
this  general  hope  ten  years  ago  and  bearing  long  a 
load  of  obloquy  for  supporting  the  King's  measures, 
and  never  obtaining  in  recompense  the  smallest 
remission  of  that  displeasure  I  vainly  laboured  to 
soften,  all   ardour  for  public  business  is  really  ex- 


v.]  IN  SUBORDINATE   OFFICE  65 

tinguisliecl  in  my  mind,  and  I  am  totally  deprived  of 
all  consideration  by  which  alone  I  could  have  been  of 
any  use.  The  weight  of  irremovable  royal  displeasure 
is  a  load  too  great  to  move  under :  it  must  crush  any 
man ;  it  has  sunk  and  broke  me."  Let  those  who  are 
ready  to  sneer  at  Pitt's  humiliation  and  to  moralise 
over  his  ambition,  think  of  *'  whatever  records  may 
leap  to  light,"  when  the  private  letters  of  the 
politicians  of  our  own  age  will  ultimately  be  given 
to  the  world. 

'Tis  pitiful  reading  these  letters  of  Pitt  to  his 
friends  and  the  ministers  all  through  these  months 
of  March,  April,  and  May.  He  was  detained  at  Bath, 
racked  with  pain,  hardly  able  to  stand,  to  write,  or  be 
carried  about.  He  was  bursting  with  desire  to  be 
Secretary  of  State  and  to  lead  the  House  of  Commons, 
to  which  he  justly  thought  himself  entitled.  He  could 
not  move  from  his  invalid  chair,  and  he  wrote  with 
his  lame  hand  illegible  scrawls  to  George  Grenville,  to 
Lyttelton,  to  Lord  Temple,  urging  tactics,  a  plan  to 
force  their  claims  on  the  Court,  on  the  Chancellor,  and 
on  the  Duke,  "  to  talk  modestly,  to  fish  in  the  troubled 
waters,  to  act  like  public  men  in  a  dangerous  con- 
juncture for  our  country."  In  the  meantime  Lord 
Temple  was  to  rally  the  Cousinhood,  muster  their 
friends  in  Parliament,  and  make  the  magnates  under- 
stand that  they  must  satisfy  their  claims  or  prepare 
for  their  hostility.  It  is  not  very  lofty,  nor  quite  in 
the  vein  of  Aristides  and  Cato.  But  it  is  what  is 
often  done  (they  say)  even  to-day,  in  a  ministerial 
crisis. 

The  shifty  Duke   of   Newcastle    contrived   to   be 


66  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Prime  Minister  himself,  and  put  in  his  creature,  a  dull 
respectability,  Sir  T.  Robinson,  to  lead  the  House. 
"He  might  as  well  send  us  his  jackboot  to  lead  us," 
said  Pitt.  But  this  manoeuvre  cost  him  the  angry  oppo- 
sition of  Pitt  and  of  Fox,  as  soon  as  a  new  Parliament 
was  elected,  and  even  for  a  time,  a  sort  of  coalition  of 
Pitt  with  Fox,  in  combined  opposition.  Pitt  retained 
his  office,  as  Fox  did  his ;  but  neither  of  them  thought 
this  any  reason  for  abstaining  to  attack  Sir  Thomas,  as 
often  as  they  chose.  A  more  useful  public  service 
was  the  new  Chelsea  Pensioners  Relief  Act,  which  Pitt 
devised  and  carried,  to  protect  the  poor  old  soldiers 
from  the  scandalous  extortions  to  which  they  were 
exposed. 

Pitt  was  not  long  in  formally  attacking  the  Duke 
himself.  It  was  one  of  his  most  famous  outbursts; 
and,  by  good  fortune,  we  have  accounts  of  it  from  two 
most  competent,  though  both  unfriendly,  sources  —  no 
less  than  Fox  himself  and  Horace  Walpole.  In  a 
letter  to  Lord  Hartington,  Fox  says,  "  It  was  the  finest 
speech  that  ever  Pitt  spoke,  and,  perhaps,  the  most 
remarkable."  A  young  member,  whose  seat  was 
attacked  for  bribery,  treated  the  accusation  with 
"buffoonery,  which  kept  the  House  in  a  continual 
roar  of  laughter.  Mr.  Pitt  came  down  from  the 
gallery,  and  took  it  up  in  his  highest  tone  of  dignity. 
He  was  astonished  when  he  heard  what  had  been  the 
occasion  of  their  mirth.  Was  the  dignity  of  the  House 
of  Commons  on  so  sure  foundation,  that  they  might 
venture  themselves  to  shake  it?  Had  it  not  been 
diminishing  for  years,  till  now  we  were  brought  to 
the  very  brink  of  the  precipice  where,  if  ever,  a  stand 


v.]  IN  SUBOKDINATE   OFFICE  67 

must  be  made  ?  High  compliments  to  the  Speaker, 
eloquent  exhortation  to  Whigs  of  all  conditions,  to 
defend  their  attacked  and  expiring  liberty,  etc.  Un- 
less you  will  degenerate  into  a  little  assembly,  serving 
no  other  purpose  than  to  register  the  arbitrary  decrees 
of  one  too  powerful  subject  (laying  on  the  words  one 
and  subject  the  most  remarkable  emphasis)."  So  writes 
Fox.  Horace  Walpole  tells  it  in  almost  the  same 
words,  and  adds :  "  This  thunderbolt,  thrown  in  a 
sky  so  long  serene,  confounded  the  audience.  Murray 
crouched,  silent  and  terrified,"  etc.,  etc.  "  It  was 
observed,"  wrote  Fox,  "  that  by  his  first  two  periods, 
he  brought  the  House  to  a  silence  and  attention,  that 
you  might  have  heard  a  pin  drop."  And  Fox  adds 
that  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  was  in  the  utmost  fidget, 
and  that  "it  spoiled  his  stomach."  But  the  craven 
minister,  thus  flouted  by  his  subordinate,  dared  not 
call  for  his  dismissal. 

Pitt  and  Fox  both  continued  to  pour  heavy  shot 
into  the  Duke  and  his  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 
Then  Pitt  turned  on  Murray  (the  future  Lord  Mans- 
field, and  a  great  Judge).  Fox  wrote :  "  I  sate  next 
Murray;  who  suffered  for  an  hour."  Though  the  Duke 
dared  not  dismiss  Pitt,  he  saw  that  he  must  detach 
him  from  Fox.  Thereupon  a  mysterious  three-cornered 
game  of  finesse  took  place  between  Newcastle  with 
Hardwicke,  Fox  and  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  and 
Pitt  by  himself.  In  the  end,  Newcastle  induced  Fox 
to  leave  Pitt,  and  enter  the  Cabinet.  Pitt's  friends 
and  eulogists  praise  his  dignity  and  self-command. 
Fox's  friends  say  the  same  of  him,  with  cross-accusa- 
tions of  the  other  side.     Whatever  may  be  the  whole 


68  CHATHAM  [chap. 

truth,  Pitt  considered  that  he  had  been  left  in  the 
lurch,  and  he  never  forgave  Fox,  though  it  is  far  from 
clear  that  Fox  had  played  him  false,  or  had  ever 
pledged  himself  to  be  his  friend.  Pitt  said  he  would 
not  serve  under  Fox ;  but  added,  they  would  not 
quarrel. 

Newcastle  still  tried  to  pacify  Pitt  without  admitting 
him  to  the  Council.  He  sent  the  elder  Horace  Walpole 
to  him:  on  which  Pitt  told  the  Duke  flatly  that  he 
expected  cabinet  office  at  the  first  vacancy.  When 
Lord  Hardwicke's  son,  Charles  Yorke,  went  to  Pitt 
with  protestations  from  the  Duke  of  friendship  and 
confidence,  Pitt  cut  him  short,  and  said  friendship  and 
confidence  there  was  none  between  them ;  if  there  ever 
had  been,  it  was  at  an  end.  He  would  take  nothing 
as  a  favour  from  his  Grace.  The  Duke  tried  a  third 
envoy,  the  illustrious  Chancellor  in  person.  Pitt  was 
obdurate.  He  would  have  no  subsidies,  nor  give  any 
foreign  power  aid,  unless  Hanover  was  attacked  owing 
to  its  sovereign  being  England's  King.  One  subsidy 
he  might  consent  to  support:  two  would  be  as  bad  as 
twenty.  He  would  not  accept  "a  system"  of  sub- 
sidies. Pitt  was  still  fiercely  defying  the  King  and  the 
government.  He  was  still  Paymaster  of  the  Forces ; 
and  the  Prime  Minister  did  not  have  the  courage  to 
call  for  his  resignation.  Ministerial  joint  responsibility 
is  said  to  be  lax  to-day.  It  evidently  had  not  begun  to 
exist  in  those  times. 

But  at  last,  in  November  1755,  the  cup  was  full. 
On  the  address  Pitt  rose  after  uninteresting  discourses, 
Horace  Walpole  tells  us:  "his  eloquence,  like  a  torrent 
long  obstructed,  burst  forth  with  more  commanding 


v.]  IN  SUBORDINATE   OFFICE  69 

impetuosity — haughty,  defiant, conscious  of  injury,  and 
of  supreme  abilities."  He  inveighed  against  the  use  of 
the  King's  sacred  name  in  Parliament.  He  had  long 
seen  the  dignity  of  the  House  dwindling,  sinking.  He 
asked,  must  we  drain  our  last  vital  drop  and  send  it  to 
the  North  Pole  ?  (A  squadron  was  going  to  the  Baltic.) 
He  protested  again  and  again  against  burdening  Eng- 
land with  the  interests  of  Hanover.  They  talk  of  the 
law  of  nations,  but  Nature  is  the  best  writer  —  she  will 
teach  us  to  be  men,  and  not  truckle  to  power.  "I, 
who  travel  through  a  desert,  and  am  overwhelmed 
with  mountains  of  obscurity,  cannot  catch  a  gleam  to 
direct  me  to  the  beauties  of  these  negotiations."  And 
then  he  burst  into  the  famous  simile  of  the  Rhone  and 
the  Saone  (which  seems  to  us  to-day  merely  a  bit  of 
rhetoric,  and  not  at  all  the  true  fire  of  the  real 
Pitt).i 

He  continued  that  "these  incoherent,  un-British 
measures  were  adopted  in  place  of  our  proper  force  — 
our  navy.  Were  these  treaties  English  measures  ? 
were  they  preventive  measures  ?  were  they  not 
measures  of  aggression  ?  Would  they  not  provoke 
Prussia,  and  light  up  a  general  war?  All  our  mis- 
fortunes were  owing  to  those  daring,  wicked  councils. 
He  could  imagine  the  King  abroad  surrounded  by 
affrighted  Hanoverians,  with  no  advocate  for  England 
near  him.     Within  two  years  his  Majesty  would  not 

1  "  I  remember  that  at  Lyons  I  was  taken  to  see  the  conflux  of  the 
Rhone  and  the  Saone  —  the  one  a  gentle,  feeble,  languid  stream,  and 
though  languid,  of  no  great  depth;  the  other  a  boisterous  and  im- 
petuous torrent;  but  different  as  they  are  they  meet  at  last  —  and 
long  may  they  continue  united,  to  the  comfort  of  each  other,  and  to 
the  glory,  honour,  and  security  of  their  nation." 


70  CHATHAM  [chap. 

be  able  to  sleep  in  St.  James's  for  the  cries  of  a  bank- 
rupt people."  This  was  too  much  even  for  Newcastle. 
Pitt  was  dismissed  from  his  place.  With  him  too 
went  his  allies,  Legge  and  George  Grenville. 

To  some  it  seemed  that  Pitt,  now  a  man  long  past 
middle  life,  now  a  third  time  debarred  from  power,  in 
a  hopeless  minority,  almost  friendless,  penniless,  a  con- 
firmed invalid,  tortured  with  gout,  and  forced  to  resort 
to  long  spells  of  retirement,  was  finally  to  be  reckoned 
a  political  ruin.  It  was  not  so.  Within  twelve  months 
he  was  First  Minister  of  King  George,  and  the  head 
of  the  most  powerful  government  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  public  cares  that  there 
came  to  Pitt  almost  the  one  perfectly  unclouded  happi- 
ness of  his  stormy  life  —  his  marriage  to  Lady  Hester 
Grenville,  the  only  sister  of  his  friend.  Earl  Temple. 
It  seems  to  have  been  a  rather  sudden  engagement, 
followed  immediately  by  marriage,  which  took  place 
on  15th  November  1754,  a  few  months  after  his  terrible 
illness  at  Bath.  The  only  sister  of  his  intimate  friends, 
the  Grenvilles,  the  cousin  of  George  Lyttelton  and  of 
Thomas  Pitt's  wife,  had  of  course  been  known  to  Pitt 
from  her  childhood.  He  was  himself  a  bachelor  of 
mature  age,  and  he  was  married  on  his  own  forty-sixth 
birthday.  Lady  Hester  lived  into  the  nineteenth 
century,  until  nearly  half  a  century  after  this  date, 
and  she  was  a  young  woman  at  marriage.  She  seems 
to  have  possessed  grace,  virtue,  and  good  sense  in 
abundance.  Assuredly  the  marriage  proved  to  be  one 
of  unalloyed  happiness  and  mutual  affection.  Nothing 
in  Pitt's  whole  life  was  a  more  perfect  success. 


v.]  IN  SUBORDINATE   OFFICE  71 

By  the  fresh  alliance  with  the  wealthy  and  powerful 
family  seated  at  Stowe,  Pitt  greatly  strengthened  his 
political  position.  His  wife  brought  him  every  happi- 
ness that  a  good  and  able  woman  could  bring  to  the 
husband  she  adored.  They  had  two  daughters,  beside 
three  sons,  of  whom  the  second  was  William,  the  illus- 
trious Prime  Minister  of  George  in.  There  is  not  a 
cloud  or  a  defect  in  any  aspect  of  Pitt's  private  life. 
He  was  abstemious,  affectionate,  thoughtful,  and  gene- 
rous. As  Lord  Brougham  wrote  —  "To  all  his  family 
he  was  simple,  kindly,  and  gentle."  The  archives 
of  Stowe  have  preserved  for  us  the  letters  which 
Earl  Temple  received  from  his  sister  and  her  future 
husband.  They  are  couched  in  the  solemn  (and  to  us 
the  stilted)  style  of  that  age.  Lady  Hester  writes  to 
"  her  dearest  brother,"  with  "  millions  of  thanks  for 
your  love  to  him,  to  me."  She  feels  "  that  pride  and 
pleasure  in  his  partiality  for  me  which  his  infinite 
worth  not  only  justifies,  but  renders  right."  Pitt  on 
his  side  tells  Lord  Temple,  "  You  sent  me  from  Stowe 
the  most  blessed  of  men."  He  tells  George  Grenville, 
the  other  brother,  that  he  must  "  count  every  moment 
till  the  world  sees  me  the  most  honoured  and  blessed 
of  men ! "  Yes !  they  are  what  we  now  regard  as 
artificial  and  cumbrous  for  love-letters.  But  their 
meaning  is  sound,  warm,  and  true  in  feeling.  The 
form  was  that  of  the  "  polite-letter,"  it  is  true ;  but  the 
substance  was  sincerity,  honour,  and  love. 

The  letters  of  Pitt  have  always  been  regarded  as 
stiff  and  awkward.  The  King  said  Pitt's  letters  were 
affected,  formal,  and  pedantic.  He  was  not  an  adroit 
penman ;  and  too  much  has  been  made  of  the  anecdote 


72  CHATHAM  [chap. 

that  he  asked  a  young  lawyer  to  correct  his  mistakes. 
Pitt  was  not  a  Horace  Walpole,  just  as  Horace  Walpole 
was  not  a  Pitt.  The  genius  of  the  one  lay  in  his  pen,  that 
of  the  other  in  his  voice.  But  in  substance  the  letters 
of  Pitt  are  manly,  dignified,  wise,  and  wholesome.  If 
one  would  know  what  Pitt  was  as  a  man,  one  should 
turn  to  his  familiar  letters  to  his  nephew,  the  son  of 
Thomas  Pitt,  and  afterwards  the  first  Lord  Camelford. 
They  were  published  exactly  one  hundred  years  ago 
in  a  dainty  volume  by  Lord  Grenville,  George's  son, 
who  dedicated  the  collection  to  William  Pitt,  then 
Prime  Minister,  in  1804.  The  letters  begin  to  "My 
dear  Child"  at  Cambridge  in  1751,  when  Pitt  was 
struggling  for  ofiice,  and  are  continued  until  1757, 
when  he  was  first  minister  and  the  greatest  personage 
in  Europe. 

We  should  call  such  letters  to-day  solemn  common- 
place, affected  erudition ;  but  I  confess  to  a  real 
enjoyment  in  their  affectionate  interest  in  a  promising 
lad,  and  in  their  keen  zest  for  the  old  classical  tags. 
This  mature  bachelor,  the  terrible  gladiator  of  Parlia- 
ment, writes  long  disquisitions  on  study  to  his 
brother's  clever  boy.  He  corrects  his  verse  transla- 
tion of  the  Eclogues.  He  insists  on  his  going  through 
the  Aeneid  from  beginning  to  end.  "  God  bless  you, 
my  dear  child,  your  most  affectionate  uncle  "  —  before 
whom,  he  might  have  added.  Fox  and  Murray  cower. 
"  Love  the  Iliad,  and  Virgil  particularly."  "  Drink  as 
deep  as  you  can  of  these  divine  springs  —  ille  impiger 
hausit  spumantem  pateram,^'  etc.  etc.  "  He  should  fix 
on  the  curtains  of  his  bed,  and  on  the  walls  of  his 
chamber,   the    maxim  —  VUanda    est    improba   Siren, 


v.]  IN  SUBORDINATE  OFFICE  73 

Desidia."  Rise  early,  keep  regular  hours  for  study. 
Your  books  should  be  Euclid,  Logic,  Experimental 
Philosophy,  Locke,  Horace,  Virgil,  Tully,  the  history 
of  England,  Burnet,  Moli^re,  Addison  —  there  is  no- 
thing about  Brunck  or  Schtltzius,  or  German  erudition. 
"  If  you  are  not  right  towards  God,  you  can  never  be 
so  towards  man  —  ingratum  qui  dixerit,  omnia  dixit.'" 
"  Remember  the  essence  of  religion  is,  a  heart  void  of 
offence  towards  God  and  man ;  not  subtle  speculative 
opinions,  but  an  active  vital  principle  of  faith." 

Then  follow  precepts  as  to  Behaviour  —  quite  as 
sound  and  less  superficial  than  those  addressed  by 
Lord  Chesterfield  to  his  son.  Do  not  be  above  such 
trifles  as  taking  manly  exercises  with  grace  and 
vigour.  Do  not  give  way  to  idle  laughter,  risu  inepto, 
Bes  ineptior  nulla  est.  Politeness  is  "  benevolence  in 
trifles."  "1  cannot  tell  you  better  how  truly  and 
tenderly  I  love  you,  than  by  telling  you  I  am  most 
solicitously  bent  on  your  doing  everything  that  is 
right,"  etc.,  etc.  Stale  truisms  enough,  in  the  style  of 
Thackeray's  Colonel  Newcome,  but  written  by  a  man 
racked  with  gout  and  hardly  able  to  hold  a  pen,  in  the 
midst  of  his  great  struggle  with  the  Duke.  In  May 
1754,  after  his  bitter  disappointment,  he  writes  from 
Bath  with  his  lame  hand  as  to  a  general  course  of 
English  History  —  Burnet,  Bolingbroke,  Bacon,  Lord 
Clarendon,  May,  and  so  forth  —  all  sadly  antiquated, 
and  not  a  word  about  original  research  in  the  Record 
Office  or  the  British  Museum  —  but  merely  such 
meagre  compendiums  as  nourished  the  great  genius 
who  made  so  much  of  English  history. 

In  1755  he  writes  from  the  Pay  Office,  praising  his 


U  CHATHAM  [chap.  v. 

nephew's  remarks,  "  natural,  manly,  and  sensible,"  on 
some  West  Saxons,  and  on  his  declamation  on  the 
thesis  Omne  solum  forti  Patria  est — "  a  maxim  that  may 
have  supported  some  great  and  good  men  in  exile, 
Algernon  Sidney,  Ludlow  —  but  what  fatal  casuistry 
may  lie  therein,  to  such  a  villain  as  Bolingbroke."  So 
moralises  the  mature  "  Boy  Patriot,"  who  lived  to  be 
the  Veteran  Patriot  of  the  American  War,  he  who  has 
ever  on  his  lips  the  maxim  —  ingenti  j^o^triae  perculsus 
amove. 

He  continues  his  affectionate  letters,  and  his  scheme 
of  reading,  after  his  own  marriage  and  when  his 
nephew's  academic  career  was  closed.  "  I  ever  intend 
learning  as  the  weapon  and  instrument  only  of  manly, 
honourable,  and  virtuous  action  upon  the  stage  of  the 
world."  Again  he  writes  as  to  history,  mentioning 
Lady  Hester  and  her  child,  or  again,  he  mentions  in  a 
characteristic  sentence  —  "  Finitimus  Oratori  Poeta." 
"  Substitute  Tully  and  Demosthenes  in  the  place  of 
Homer  and  Virgil ;  and  arm  yourself  with  all  the 
variety  of  manner,  copiousness  and  beauty  of  diction, 
nobleness  and  magnificence  of  ideas  of  the  Roman 
consul,  and  the  close  and  forcible  reasoning,  the  depth 
and  fortitude  of  mind  of  the  Grecian  statesman." 
Even  in  the  intimacy  of  family  life,  Pitt's  mind  ever 
turned  to  the  memory  of  Demosthenes.  These  familiar 
letters  have  not  the  sparkling  wit  of  Horace  Walpole, 
nor  the  pellucid  incisiveness  of  Chesterfield.  They 
are  ponderous  in  form  and  trite  in  expression ;  but 
they  come  from  a  greater  nature,  and  picture  to  us  a 
loftier  ideal. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FIKST    MINISTRY 

The  month  of  November  1755  found  Henry  Fox  the 
Leader  in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  Newcastle,  still  the 
head  of  a  discredited  government  in  a  national  crisis, 
full  of  disasters  at  sea  and  on  land ;  and  Pitt,  Legge, 
and  George  Grenville  dismissed  from  their  offices, 
having  long  been  in  opposition  to  a  chaotic  adminis- 
tration. Pitt  was  now  resolved,  not  simply  to  be 
admitted  to  the  ministry,  but  to  supersede  it.  And 
he  took  care  to  explain  to  the  nation  and  to  public 
men  the  policy  which  he  intended  to  enforce.  His 
pecuniary  condition  was  gloomy.  Deprived  of  his 
salary,  without  hereditary  fortune  (and  he  had  strictly 
resisted  the  temptation  to  make  any  profit  out  of  his 
official  opportunities),  married  to  a  lady  of  title  but 
not  of  wealth,  Pitt  was  unable  to  maintain  a  suitable 
position. 

In  this  emergency.  Lord  Temple  came  to  the  rescue 
with  great  generosity ;  and  the  correspondence  be- 
tween him,  his  sister,  and  his  brother-in-law  is  so 
charactei'istic  of  the  persons  concerned  and  of  the 
Grandisonian  style  of  the  age,  that  we  may  give  it  in 
their  own  words.     On  the  very  day  of  Pitt's  dismissal 

75 


76  CHATHAM  [chap. 

(20th  November),  Earl  Temple  writes  to  Lady  Hester 
Pitt:  — 

"  ]\1y  dear  Lady  Hester,  —  I  cannot  defer  till  tomorrow 
morning  making  a  request  to  you  upon  the  success  of  which  I 
have  so  entirely  set  my  heart,  that  I  flatter  myself  you  will 
not  refuse  it  me.  I  must  entreat  you  to  make  use  of  all  your 
interest  with  Mr.  Pitt  to  give  his  brother  Temple  leave  to 
become  his  debtor  for  a  thousand  pounds  a  year  till  better 
times.  ]Mr.  P.  will  never  have  it  in  his  power  to  confer  so 
great  an  obligation  upon,  dear  Lady  Hester,  your  most  truly 
affectionate  brother,  Temple." 

Lady  Hester  writes  from  her  bed  (her  first  child, 
the  future  Lady  Stanhope,  was  hardly  a  month  old) 
in  the  vein  of  the  "  accomplished  Miss  Byron,"  to 
assure  her  dear  brother  how  highly  she  is  his  obliged 
and  most  affectionate  sister.  Pitt  to  his  credit  frankly 
accepted  the  generous  offer.  Lord  Temple  writes  to 
his  sister  that  he  is  infinitely  happy :  "  This  proof  of 
his  kindness  and  friendship  to  me  is  the  only  remain- 
ing one  that  he  could  give  me."  "  How  decline,  or 
how  receive  so  great  a  generosity  so  amiably  offered," 
writes  Pitt,  "  to  the  best  and  noblest  of  brothers  ?  "  A 
correspondence  which,  in  spite  of  formalities  and 
compliments,  does  honour  to  all  three. 

Though  now  in  fierce  opposition  to  his  late  col- 
leagues, there  was  nothing  really  factious  in  Pitt's 
attitude.  He  held  the  situation  of  the  country  to  be 
desperately  bad,  the  ministers  to  be  incapable,  himself 
to  be  at  once  inevitable  and  indispensable;  but  he 
was  willing  to  support  any  measures  that  were  needed 
by  the  country,  until  he  should  be  called  to  power. 
Though  he  still  sat  in  Parliament  for  what  was  called 
one  of  aSTewcastle's  boroughs,  he  did  not  consider  that 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  77 

any  reason  for  holding  his  peace.  It  is  indeed  to  his 
honour  that  he  declined  to  recognise  any  allegiance  to 
the  Duke,  who  had  so  long  made  use  of  his  services 
whilst  excluding  him  from  office. 

Accordingly,  Pitt  supported  an  amendment  to  raise 
the  seamen  for  the  ensuing  year  to  50,000.  He 
shuddered  that  our  resources  for  the  sea  service  were 
so  narrow.  He  recalled  the  fatal  reduction  of  1751 
to  8000.  He  would  pursue  the  authors  of  such 
measures  as  make  the  King's  Crown  totter  on  his 
head.  Never  was  a  noble  country  so  perniciously 
neglected,  so  undone  by  the  silly  pride  of  one  man, 
or  the  timidity  of  his  colleagues.  Broad  shame  stared 
them  in  the  face.  Shame  and  danger  had  come  to- 
gether. He  concluded  with  a  prayer  for  the  King, 
for  his  posterity,  for  this  poor,  forlorn,  distressed 
country. 

"When  the  secretary  at  war  moved  to  add  15,000 
men  to  the  army,  Pitt  seconded  the  motion  with 
ardour.  Our  whole  force  was  necessary.  It  was  not 
enough  to  send  two  miserable  battalions  as  victims  to 
America.  He  wished  to  alarm  the  nation,  to  make  the 
danger  reach  the  ears  of  his  Majesty.  He  turned  from 
the  venerable  age  of  the  King  to  his  grandson  born  an 
Englishman.  He  drew  a  picture  of  a  French  invasion 
of  London  and  the  horrors  ensuing.  How  could  men 
so  guilty  face  their  countrymen  ?  The  decay  of  the 
country  was  caused  by  the  little  spirit  of  domination, 
the  ambition  of  being  the  only  figure  amongst  cyphers 
—  [Newcastle  (1),  Fox  (0),  Lyttelton  (0),  etc.,  etc., 
etc.  (0).]  He  wanted  to  call  the  country  out  of  that 
nerveless   state,  that  20,000  men  from  France  could 


78  CHATHAM  [chap. 

shake  it.  He  wished  to  see  that  breed  revived  which 
had  carried  our  glory  so  high.  It  needed  no  Burleigh, 
no  Richelieu,  to  have  foreseen  all  that  had  happened. 
He  did  not  ask  for  the  punishment  of  ministers.  Our 
calamities  no  doubt  were  owing  to  the  weakness  of 
their  heads,  not  to  their  evil  intent. 

Before  the  year  (1755)  had  ended,  Pitt  moved  his 
famous  scheme  for  a  militia :  —  a  half-trained  terri- 
torial army  of  60,000  —  with  a  standing  army  never 
less  than  18,000.  They  would  be  exercised  on 
Sundays  and  one  other  day  in  the  week  for  110  days, 
at  6d.  per  day  —  with  no  deductions.  The  ofl&cers  to 
have  no  pay,  but  to  be  drawn  from  the  landed  gentry 

—  four  sergeants  (from  the  regular  army)  to  each 
eighty  men  —  the  total  cost  under  £300,000.  Really 
a  clear,  practicable,  well-thought  scheme  which  Pitt 
ultimately  carried  out  when  in  power.  All  through 
the  session  Pitt  constantly  attacked  Fox  and  poured 
out  scorn  on  Newcastle,  even  professing  his  honour  for 
Sir  Robert  Walpole,  whom  he  respected  —  after  his  fall 

—  what !  do  any  laugh  ?  —  was  it  not  more  honourable 
to  respect  a  man  after  his  fall,  than  when  he  was  all- 
powerful  ?  "  Sir  Robert,"  said  Pitt,  "  thought  well  of 
me,  died  in  peace  with  me."  "  He  was  a  truly  English 
Minister,  he  v/ithstood  Hanover,  and  kept  a  strict  hand 
on  the  closet." 

When  treaties  with  Russia  and  Hesse  and  Prussia 
were  submitted  to  Parliament,  Pitt  opposed.  He 
opposed  the  grant  for  the  Hanoverian  troops.  This 
was  not  an  administration,  he  said.  "  They  shift  and 
shuffle  the  charge  from  one  to  another.  Says  one, 
I   am  not  general.     The   treasury   says,   I    am    not 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  79 

admiral.  The  admiralty  says,  I  am  not  minister. 
From  such  an  unaccording  assemblage  of  separate 
and  distinct  powers  with  no  system,  a  nullity  results. 
One,  two,  three,  four,  five  lords  meet — if  they  cannot 
agree :  —  Oh !  we  will  meet  again  on  Saturday.  Oh  ! 
but,  says  one  of  them,  I  am  to  go  out  of  town."  Such 
was  a  cabinet  council  in  1756.  We  trust  nothing  like 
it  ever  did  or  could  occur  in  1904. 

When  the  country  was  seething  with  panic  about 
a  French  invasion  and  the  expected  loss  of  Minorca, 
Pitt  thundered  again  at  the  feeble  and  distracted 
ministry.  We  had  provoked  before  we  were  able  to 
defend,  and  had  neglected  defence  after  the  provoca- 
tion. He  would  not  have  signed  the  treaty  with 
Prussia  for  the  five  great  places  held  by  those  who 
signed  it.  If  he  saw  a  child  (the  Duke  of  Newcastle) 
driving  a  go-cart  on  a  precipice,  with  that  precious 
freight  of  an  old  king  and  his  family,  surely  he  was 
bound  to  take  the  reins  from  his  hands.  He  prayed 
to  God  that  his  Majesty  might  not  have  Minorca,  like 
Calais,  written  on  his  heart ! 

Minorca,  as  we  know,  was  lost.  The  unlucky  Byng 
made  a  poor  fight  with  the  French  and  sailed  away  in 
the  night,  though  he  had  more  ships  than  the  enemy. 
Calcutta  was  stormed  by  the  Nawab  of  Bengal,  and 
the  British  prisoners  were  stifled  in  the  Black  Hole. 
The  French  in  Canada  captured  Oswego  on  Lake 
Ontario,  with  1200  prisoners,  130  cannon,  stores, 
ammunition,  two  sloops,  and  200  barges.  The  country 
was  in  a  tempest  of  indignation,  and  in  fact  these 
disasters  were  all  primarily  due  to  ministerial  blunder- 
ing and  inaction.     The  child  driving  the  go-cart  now 


80  CHATHAM  [chap. 

saw  the  precipice,  which  at  any  rate  confronted  himself. 
He  saw  that  his  time  was  come.  Fox  deserted  him, 
and  offered  a  coalition  with  Pitt,  which  was  the  desire 
of  the  I^ing.  "  You  mean  you  will  not  act  with  me 
as  minister  ?  "  asked  Fox.  "  I  do,"  said  Pitt.  The 
agitation  was  intense.  The  King  was  in  alarm,  talked 
about  Pitt  sending  him  to  the  Tower.  The  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  an  honest  neutral,  was  summoned  to  form 
a  ministry,  as  Dukes  of  Devonshire  both  then  and  now 
usually  are  summoned  in  a  crisis.  Pitt  "  behaved  with 
haughty  warmth " ;  stated  his  own  terms  ;  Newcastle 
must  be  entirely  out  of  it ;  Fox  also ;  he  must  name 
the  places  for  his  own  friends ;  but,  says  Walpole,  he 
wanted  friends  for  places  more  than  places  for  friends. 
Pitt  found  it  difl&cult  to  place  his  demands  before  the 
King,  who  would  not  see  him.  So,  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life,  he  went  to  Lady  Yarmouth,  the  King's 
German  mistress,  with  whom  Newcastle,  Fox,  Hard- 
wicke,  and  the  rest  were  in  regular  communication. 
The  visit  was  noted  as  singular,  only  in  that  he  had 
never  been  to  her  before.  Popular  addresses  for  a 
new  ministry  continued  to  pour  in.  The  City  of 
London  demanded  to  have  supplies  stopped.  A  wild 
scramble  ensued,  delightfully  and  maliciously  told  by 
Horace  Walpole,  who  quotes  Addison's  remark  on 
Virgil  that  "Pitt  tossed  about  his  dirt  with  an  air  of 
majesty" 

At  last,  after  infinite  manoeuvring  by  Fox,  Newcastle, 
and  minor  men,  a  ministry  was  formed,  nominally 
under  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  with  Pitt  "First 
Minister,"  as  Walpole  says ;  Lord  Temple,  at  the 
Admiralty ;  Mr.  Legge,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ; 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  81 

and  George  Grenville,  Treasurer  of  the  Navy.  What 
with  Pitt's  haughtiness,  and  his  indifference  to  any- 
thing but  foreign  affairs,  says  Walpole,  the  Duke 
retained  the  patronage  whilst  Pitt  had  the  power. 
But  he  remained  prostrated  with  gout  all  the  winter. 
He  had  no  accession  of  new  friends  but  from  the 
Tories  who  hated  Fox.  And  an  inveterate  paper 
war  was  opened  with  unlimited  abuse  directed  at  his 
gout  and  his  supposed  new  friends.  In  truth,  he 
had  not  now,  and  never  had,  any  political  friend  but 
himself. 

Pitt  was  now  in  high  office,  but  hardly  yet  in  power. 
His  difficulties  were  extreme,  his  hold  precarious,  and 
his  enemies  unbroken.  He  had,  says  Carlyle,  all 
England  at  his  back ;  but  he  had  the  King,  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  the  great  magnates  against  him ;  Fox, 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  and  the  bulk  of  the  Parliament 
Whigs  plotting  to  ruin  him.  The  old  gang,  who  with 
Newcastle  and  Fox  had  formed  what  Horace  Walpole 
called  the  worst  administration  in  his  memory,  still 
retained  their  offices  and  embarrassed  their  chief. 

The  condition  of  the  country  was  as  bad.  After 
half  a  century  of  possession,  Minorca  had  been  lost 
to  the  French;  a  British  army  had  capitulated;  and 
a  British  fleet  had  been  disgraced.  The  Seven  Years' 
War  had  begun.  France,  Austria,  Russia,  with  Saxony 
and  Sweden,  were  at  last  united  to  crush  Prussia  — 
ninety  millions  against  five.  They  threatened  Hanover, 
the  King's  German  dominion ;  for  George  was  now  at 
last  the  ally  of  Frederick.  England  was  at  war  with 
France,  which  threatened  to  become  paramount  in  the 
whole  North  American  continent.     The  treaty  of  Aix- 


82  CHATHAM  [chap. 

la-Chapelle,  -whicli  had  restored  the  island  of  Cape 
Breton  to  France,  had  omitted  to  define  the  boundaries 
that  separated  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  from 
Canada  proper.  For  years  a  bitter  and  irregular 
struggle  had  been  carried  on  between  the  French  and 
the  British  settlers  in  North  America.  The  British 
colonists  were  said  to  number  1,200,000 ;  the  French 
about  52,000.  But  the  British  were  unorganised  in 
separate  colonies,  with  distinct  governments,  and  had 
very  slight  help  from  the  mother  country ;  the  French 
had  a  single  rule,  competent  soldiers  from  France,  and 
a  chain  of  well-placed  forts. 

France  now  boldly  asserted  her  claim  to  the  whole 
valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  its  tributaries,  and  to 
the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries. 
She  insisted  on  hemming  in  the  British  to  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  east  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  That  is 
to  say,  that  except  Newfoundland,  Nova  Scotia,  and 
what  are  now  the  Eastern  States,  the  whole  North 
American  continent  was  to  be  French;  and  this, 
though  the  colonists  numbered  but  one  in  twenty- 
four  of  the  British.  The  French  had  secured  the 
support  of  the  principal  Indian  tribes.  The  defeat 
and  death  of  Braddock,  the  capture  of  British  stockades 
and  settlements,  and  the  small  results  of  the  fleet 
sent  out  to  intercept  the  reinforcements  from  France, 
seemed  to  portend  that  the  British  colonies  were  to 
be  hemmed  in  along  the  coast.  France  now  blocked 
their  extension  to  the  north,  to  the  west,  and  to  the 
south.  Had  this  ambitious  vision  of  French  states- 
men ultimately  succeeded,  the  English  language  would 
not  be  spoken  to-day  throughout  the  vast  American 


VI.]  FIRST   MINISTRY  83 

continent  on  any  more  territory  than  the  strip  between 
the  sea  and  the  Blue  Mountains,  little  more  than  three 
hundred  miles  broad.  The  issue — one  of  the  most 
momentous  in  modern  history  —  was  determined  other- 
wise by  the  energy  and  genius  of  one  man. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  for  some  years  the 
biography  of  Pitt  is  to  be  read  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  His  influence  was  felt  in  Europe,  in  India, 
in  Africa,  in  America:  from  the  Baltic  to  the  St. 
Lawrence,  from  the  Mediterranean  to  Bengal  —  for  a 
time  even  more  potent  than  that  of  Frederick  him- 
self—  inasmuch  as  Pitt  controlled  the  greatest  sea- 
power  in  the  world,  and  thoroughly  understood  its 
ubiquitous  force.  If  Frederick  had  been  crushed  in 
the  Seven  Years'  War,  Central  Europe  would  have 
become  the  prey  of  Russia,  Austria,  and  France.  And 
Frederick  well  knew  what  he  owed  to  Pitt.  As  the 
King  of  Prussia  wrote  —  "  C'etait  la  meilleure  tete  de 
I'Angleterre."  Had  Dupleix  been  able  to  extend  and 
consolidate  the  empire  he  was  so  near  founding  in 
Madras,  France,  and  not  England,  might  have  become 
the  suzerain  of  Hindustan.  If  Montcalm  had  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  the  French  control  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  the  Lakes,  and  the  Mississippi  valley, 
France,  not  Britain,  would  have  been  the  mother 
country  of  America.  How  different  would  the  aspect 
of  the  world  be  to-day !  In  1755,  all  these  three 
possible  results  were  far  from  improbable.  In  1761, 
they  had  become  utterly  impossible. 

The  biography  of  Pitt  in  these  years  has  to  be  read 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  a  history  which  it  is 
obvious  cannot  be  even  sketched  in  outline  in  these 


84  CHATHAM  [chap. 

pages.  All  that  can  be  done  here  is  to  note  the 
occasions  wherein  is  visible  the  master-hand  of  the 
British  statesman.  During  the  year  1757,  Pitt  was 
hardly  master  of  his  own  government.  The  ejected 
ministers  still  retained  a  dominant  influence  in  the 
House.  The  people  were  irritated  and  suffering. 
Every  measure  he  proposed  was  resisted  by  the  in- 
trigues of  his  rivals.  But  he  set  to  work  resolutely 
to  meet  the  crisis.  As  Carlyle  insists,  Pitt's  eye  was 
ever  on  America.  He  saw  the  need  of  sending  out 
to  Canada  something  more  than  the  ''two  miserable 
battalions,"  which  he  had  formerly  denounced.  He 
now  adopted  an  expedient  which  was  a  stroke  of 
genius,  inasmucl:  as  it  gave  new  blood  to  the  British 
army,  whilst  it  pacified  and  employed  the  angry 
blood  in  the  Scotch  Highlands.  Two  battalions  of 
Highlanders  —  each  one  thousand  strong  —  were  at 
once  enrolled,  and  the  command  given  to  chiefs  of 
their  own  clans.  His  design  was  to  recover  Cape 
Breton  and  Quebec  and  drive  the  French  from  Canada. 
Stringent  orders  were  sent  to  the  naval  and  military 
commanders  across  the  Atlantic  to  make  every  effort 
to  strengthen  the  army  and  the  fleet.  Eight  battalions 
were  sent  to  America.  Fleets  were  also  ordered  to 
the  West  Indies,  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  to  India. 
Votes  for  the  year  1757  were  for  £8,355,320:  55,000 
men  for  the  navy ;  45,000  for  the  army. 

One  of  the  first  difficulties  was  the  fate  of  the 
unfortunate  Admiral  Byng,  in  which  the  conduct  of 
Pitt  must  be  pronounced  to  be  wise,  generous,  and 
bold.  After  Byng's  ignominious  retreat  before  the 
French   fleet,  leaving  Minorca  to  its   fate,  the  rage 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  85 

and  shame  of  the  nation  had  forced  Fox  and  Newcastle 
to  order  the  Admiral  home  for  court-martial.  He  was 
not  tried  until  six  months  after  his  return.  The  court 
consisted  of  four  admirals  and  nine  captains.  By 
the  twelfth  article  of  war  every  seaman  who,  through 
cowardice,  negligence,  or  disaffection,  should  not  do  his 
utmost  to  take  or  destroy  an  enemy's  ship  with 
which  he  was  engaged  shall  suffer  death.  The  four 
admirals  and  the  nine  captains  heard  evidence  and 
the  defence,  and  then  acquitted  Byng  of  cowardice 
and  of  disaffection  ;  but  they  unanimously  found  him 
guilty  of  not  having  done  his  utmost,  and  accordingly 
condemned  him  to  be  shot.  They  added  a  recom- 
mendation to  mercy,  on  the  ground  that  his  offence 
was  "  an  error  of  judgment." 

Thereupon  violent  agitation  arose  in  the  public, 
and  debates  in  Parliament.  The  King,  and  apparently 
officers  in  both  services,  as  well  as  the  general  public, 
felt  that  Byng  had  brought  disgrace  upon  the  navy  by 
a  fatal  act  of  weakness.  Politicians  hoped  that  the 
recommendation  to  mercy  would  prevail;  but  nearly 
all  of  them  hesitated  to  urge  it  on  the  King.  Fox, 
who  was  Leader  of  the  House  when  Byng  was  recalled, 
tried  to  throw  the  onus  on  Pitt.  Stern  disciplinarian 
as  he  ever  was,  Pitt  affirmed  in  Parliament  that  he 
desired  mercy  to  be  shown.  He  went  to  the  King,  and 
told  him  that  the  House  of  Commons  desired  a  pardon. 
The  King  cut  him  short  by  saying,  "  You  have  taught 
me  to  look  elsewhere  than  to  the  Commons  for  the 
sense  of  my  subjects ! "  It  was  stated  in  the  House 
that  Captain  Keppel,  one  of  the  court,  had  doubts 
about  the  sentence.     Pitt  procured  a  respite  from  the 


86  CHATHAM  [chap. 

King.  He  carried  a  Bill  to  release  the  members  of  the 
court-martial  from  their  oath  of  secrecy  (by  153 
against  23).^  The  Bill  went  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
where  each  member  of  the  court-martial  was  sepa- 
rately cross-examined  by  Lord  Hardwicke  and  Lord 
Mansfield,  the  greatest  living  lawyers,  who  asked  each 
officer  if  he  thought  the  sentence  unjust.  They  all 
answered  in  the  negative.  Thereupon  the  Lords 
threw  out  the  Bill,  and  left  Byng  to  his  fate.  He 
was  shot  on  the  14th  March  1757,  having  shown  the 
utmost  intrepidity  and  dignity  of  bearing. 

On  this  famous  incident,  so  ill-understood  even  now, 
one  may  observe  :  — 

1.  That  Byng  was  not  executed  in  haste:  he  was 
shot  nine  months  after  his  arrest,  and  three  months 
after  his  trial,  after  long  debates  in  both  Houses  and 
frequent  respites. 

2.  He  was  not  executed  simply  from  popular 
clamour,  for  the  House  of  Lords  were  his  worst  op- 
ponents; and  two  of  the  greatest  lawyers  who  ever 
sat  there,  were  his  severest  judges. 

3.  The  Court,  the  politicians,  and  the  nation  were 
all  agreed  that  Byng  had  lowered  his  country's  flag, 
and  merited  severe  punishment  —  degradation,  if  not 
death.     The  Article  left  no  alternative  but  death. 

4.  The  cooler  minds  saw  that  the  admirars  offence 

1  It  was  on  the  debate  of  this  Bill  that  Pitt  said  :  "  May  I  fall 
when  I  refuse  pity  to  such  a  suit  as  Mr.  Keppel's,  justifjing  a  man 
who  lies  under  captivity  and  the  shadow  of  death  I  I  thank  God  I 
feel  something  more  than  popularity  —  I  feel  justice  I  "  Lord  Tem- 
ple, at  the  bead  of  the  Admiralty,  had  refused  to  sign  the  death- 
warrant  until  its  legality  was  referred  to  the  judges.  This  was 
done.    It  was  pronounced  to  be  legal. 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  87 

was  fatal  error  of  judgment  rather  than  "  negligence," 
and  they  were  •willing  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt. 

5.  Pitt  and  Temple  fairly  did  their  best  to  save  his 
life  at  the  risk  of  facing  the  anger  of  the  King,  the 
contempt  of  the  people,  and  the  intrigues  of  political 
rivals. 

Pitt  now  accomplished  what  was  perhaps  the  most 
conspicuous  volte-face  in  the  whole  of  his  many-sided 
career.  He  who  for  twenty  years  had  stormed  against 
German  entanglements  and  subsidies  to  foreign  sove- 
reigns, he  who  had  won  fame  as  a  youth  by  sneering 
at  Hanover  and  the  King,  now  opened  his  own  ministry 
to  George  ii.  by  advising  an  alliance  with  Frederick  of 
Prussia,  and  by  proposing  a  vote  of  £200,000  for  the 
war.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  change  was  strong, 
for  Pitt  had  condemned  this  very  treaty  with  Frederick 
only  the  year  before ;  and  so  far  as  his  policy  can  be 
said  to  have  regular  principle,  it  was  to  establish 
British  ascendency  at  sea,  and  across  the  ocean,  but 
not  to  meddle  in  the  centre  of  Europe.  The  critics 
were  ready  to  sneer.  Fox  was  equal  to  the  occasion 
and  to  himself,  when  he  reminded  Pitt  of  his  famous 
trope  that  "the  German  measures  would  be  a  mill- 
stone round  the  neck  of  the  minister,"  and  he  could 
but  hope  this  German  measure  would  prove  to  be  an 
ornament  round  the  neck  of  the  present  minister. 

This  was  a  very  pretty  bit  of  parliamentary  satire. 
But  the  case  was  now  changed ;  the  men  were  different ; 
and  the  purpose  was  not  the  same.  Pitt  cared  little 
for  rigid  consistency,  for  unchangeable  alliances  and 


88  CHATHAM  [chap. 

eternal  enmities.  He  would  not  have  been  a  great 
statesman  if  he  did.  He  saw  that  he  had  been  wrong 
in  opposing  the  alliance  with  Frederick,  that  he  had 
not  understood  the  man.  He  saw  it,  and  he  frankly 
admitted  it.  To  prevent  Prussia  being  crushed  by  the 
gigantic  confederacy  of  five  Powers  was  a  very  different 
thing  from  assisting  Maria  Theresa  to  regain  her  ances- 
tral dominions.  Lastly,  to  protect  Hanover  from  being 
absorbed  by  France,  because  the  Elector  of  Hanover 
was  King  of  England,  was  a  very  different  thing  from 
flinging  away  English  blood  and  treasure  to  promote 
the  ambition  and  second  the  quarrels  of  the  Elector  of 
Hanover.  Pitt's  policy,  as  he  clearly  showed,  was 
this :  —  he  would  not  sacrifice  British  interests  for 
Hanoverian  objects,  but  he  would  not  let  Hanover 
be  sacrificed  solely  by  reason  of  its  connection  with 
England.  This  was  a  perfectly  intelligible  policy; 
and  it  was  a  sound  policy.  Pitt's  change  of  front  was 
startling ;  but  it  has  an  adequate  defence. 

When  Pitt  was  at  last  admitted  to  the  closet  of  his 
ungracious  King,  he  behaved  with  ostentatious,  perhaps 
preposterous,  humility;  would  not  be  seated  in  the 
royal  presence ;  and,  when  unable  to  stand  for  his 
gout,  would  address  his  sovereign  kneeling  on  a  stool. 
Carlyle  will  have  it  that  Pitt  "  had  some  reverence  for 
George."  Not  for  the  man,  one  thinks ;  but  Pitt,  in 
his  imaginative  and  tragedy-king  vein,  seems  to  have 
felt  the  visible  presence  of  his  Sacred  Majesty  as  a  sort 
of  consecration  of  his  own  power.  His  Sacred  Majesty, 
at  any  rate  at  first,  showed  small  reverence  for  the 
odious  minister  who  forced  himself  on  his  King,  and 
grumbled  at  the  debating  speeches  he  was  required  to 


VI.]  FIEST  MINISTRY  89 

listen  to  from  his  counsellor.  Queen  Victoria,  it  is 
whispered,  complained  that  Mr.  Gladstone  "  talked  to 
her  as  if  she  were  a  public  meeting."  Pitt,  we  may 
be  sure,  talked  to  George  as  he  had  talked  to  the 
ministry  of  Walpole  or  Granville.  George  said  Pitt 
was  tedious  and  pompous,  and  had  never  read  books 
on  International  Law.  He  was  "  alternately  harsh  and 
subservient  to  his  sovereign,"  they  said.  As  to  Temple, 
—  who  was  free  and  easy,  treated  the  King  as  if  he 
were  Newcastle  or  Granville,  and  dared  to  say  that 
Byng  had  merely  shown  the  same  prudence  as  George 
had  shown  at  Oudenarde — the  King  found  him  un- 
bearable.    He  said,  "  Now  ministers  are  king." 

Cumberland,  who  was  to  command  the  army  sent  to 
Germany,  almost  stipulated  that  Pitt  should  be  dis- 
missed before  he  sailed.  Newcastle,  who  still  con- 
trolled a  great  party  in  the  Commons,  and  Pox,  who 
was  thirsting  for  place,  carried  on  a  set  of  incessant 
intrigues,  which  fill  the  Memoirs  and  make  them  as 
amusing  as  any  romance.  George  at  last  saw  an 
opportunity  to  strike  his  blow.  Temple  was  sum- 
marily dismissed  from  the  Admiralty.  Pitt  refused 
to  resign.  The  King  sent  for  his  seals  and  those  of 
Mr.  Legge,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  Pitt's 
friends  in  the  government  followed  him  and  resigned. 

For  eleven  weeks  the  game  of  ministerial  combina- 
tions went  on  with  as  many  surprises  and  changes  as 
any  in  the  Comedy  of  Errors  or  the  Fourberies  de 
Scaj)in.  The  public  excitement  was  intense.  Th3 
Stocks  fell.  The  City  voted  Pitt  its  freedom  in  a 
costly  casket.  The  other  great  towns  followed  suit. 
Walpole  says  — ''  for  some  weeks  it  rained  gold  boxes." 


90  CHATHAM  [chap. 

The  agitation  was  almost  like  that  which  carried  the 
Kef  orm  Bill  of  1832.  Endless  combinations  of  Peers  and 
Commoners  were  tried  and  torn  up  in  a  day.  In  the 
meantime  Parliament  was  sitting;  a  war  was  being 
waged  at  sea  and  land ;  there  was  no  government ;  the 
King,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
his  mother  —  all  had  their  own  partisans  pulling  differ- 
ent ways.  In  the  House,  an  inquiry  was  being  forced  on 
to  fix  the  responsibility  for  the  loss  of  Minorca  and  other 
disasters.  If  Pitt  had  used  all  his  fire,  it  is  thought  he 
might  have  crushed  for  ever  both  Newcastle  and  Fox. 

The  amazing  and  amusing  result  of  all  such  serio- 
comedy  was  this.  Instead  of  crushing  Newcastle  and 
Fox,  who  had  just  driven  him  from  power,  instead  of 
defying  the  King,  who  had  rudely  dismissed  him,  Pitt 
became  his  absolute  First  Minister,  and  that  in  coali- 
tion with  Newcastle,  with  Fox,  and  even  with  that 
"execrable  minister,"  Carteret-Granville.  The  won- 
derful peripeteia  has  been  told  by  Macaulay  with  such 
truth  and  such  conciseness,  that  it  is  well  to  borrow 
his  account.  Pitt,  he  says,  had  found  by  experience 
that  he  could  not  stand  alone.  Without  rank,  without 
fortune,  without  borough  interest,  hated  by  the  King, 
hated  by  the  aristocracy,  he  was  still  a  person  of  the 
first  importance  in  the  state.  He  had  formed  a  min- 
istry, had  excluded  his  chief  rivals  from  it  —  these  the 
most  powerful  Whig  Peer  and  the  ablest  debater  in 
the  Commons. 

He  now  found  that  he  had  gone  too  far.  He  had 
the  people,  but  no  majority  in  the  people's  House. 
Newcastle  had  wealth,  rank,  parliamentary  influence, 
prestige,  long  practice  in  intrigue.     Fox  in  oratorical 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  91 

power  was  only  inferior  to  Pitt,  and  in  adroit  debating 
even  his  superior.  The  King  preferred  Newcastle; 
Cumberland  held  by  Fox;  the  public  clamoured  for 
Pitt.  Newcastle  had  been  turned  out  by  the  public 
indignation.  Pitt  had  been  turned  out  by  want  of 
parliamentary  backing.  Newcastle  wanted  patronage 
more  than  power.  Fox  wanted  money  more  than 
power.  Pitt  wanted  nothing  but  power,  and  refused 
to  share  it  with  Newcastle  or  with  Fox.  Newcastle, 
Fox,  or  Pitt  each  could  turn  out  the  other  two. 
Neither  could  maintain  a  government  alone.  United 
they  would  be  irresistible.  Pitt,  Fox,  and  Newcastle's 
nominees  need  fear  no  opposition  in  the  House.  The 
Duke  could  answer  for  the  army  of  place-hunters  and 
the  benevolent  neutrality  of  the  magnates.  Pitt  could 
rouse  the  cities,  the  services,  and  the  nation  to  a  white 
heat  of  enthusiasm.  In  face  of  such  a  coalition,  the 
King,  the  royalties,  and  the  factions  could  do  nothing. 
After  infinite  negotiations  and  shuffling  of  the  cards, 
in  which  Lord  Chesterfield,  Lord  Hardwicke,  and 
Lord  Mansfield  played  important  parts,  and  Pitt 
showed  firmness  and  dignity,  a  combination  was 
secured  whereby  Pitt  gained  everything  he  desired. 
He  himself  became  Secretary  of  State,  Leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  undoubted  First  Minister. 
The  Duke  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  at  the  Trea- 
sury along  with  George  Grenville,  where  he  could 
continue  to  job  and  patronise  to  his  heart's  content. 
Fox  was  kicked  downstairs  from  cabinet  rank  into  the 
Pay  Office,  where  he  was  content  to  make  a  vast  for- 
tune by  illicit  perquisites.  Legge  returned  to  the 
Exchequer,    and    Temple    returned    as    Privy   Seal. 


92  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Granville,  a  drunkard  and  a  wreck,  remained  President 
of  the  Council.  On  the  face  of  it,  this  might  seem  to 
be  the  old  ministry  of  Newcastle,  Fox,  and  Pitt.  In 
truth  it  was  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  was  a  ministry 
in  which  Pitt  was  absolute  master;  the  rest  were 
ciphers.  Newcastle  retained  jobbery  without  power 
or  dignity.  Fox  obtained  money  without  power  or 
rank.  Both  were  practically  degraded.  Pitt  had 
placed  his  friends,  George  Grenville,  James  Grenville, 
Temple,  and  Legge,  where  he  wanted  them.  He  had 
the  sole  control.  He  now  broke  with  the  pocket- 
borough  system,  having  sat  during  twenty  years  for 
seats  in  the  gift  of  his  own  family  or  of  the  Pelhams. 
He  now  had  himself  elected  for  the  city  of  Bath, 
where  indeed  he  had  to  pass  many  weary  months  as 
an  invalid.  The  King  was  checkmated.  Parliament 
became  obsequious  and  silent ;  and  Pitt,  freed  from  the 
solicitations  of  obscure  place-hunters  and  the  worry  of 
a  strong  opposition,  was  able  to  devote  his  whole  soul 
to  the  nation.  This  ministry,  for  now  it  was  really 
Pitt's  ministry,  in  four  years  won  more  temporary 
glory  and  effected  more  permanent  results  than  any 
English  ministry  ^  within  the  same  time. 

Pitt,  now  in  sole  control  at  the  helm  of  state,  de- 
voted himself  with  intense  ardour  to  all  the  details 
of  administration,  so  far  as  concerned  military  and 
naval  affairs,  and  foreign  policy.  In  these  he  was  all 
that  Frederick  was  in  Prussia,  or  Napoleon  was   as 

1  Lord  Waldegrave,  who  went  to  Kensington  to  watch  the  new 
ministers  present  themselves  to  the  King,  says  Pitt  and  his  friends 
were  decent  and  sensible:  neither  insolent  nor  awkward.  The 
Duke  and  his  party  showed  such  fear  and  shame  that  made  them 
objects  of  pity. 


VI.]  -  FIRST  MINISTRY  93 

Emperor.  He  spared  no  labour;  nothing  was  too 
small  for  his  attention.  His  orders  were  exact,  clear, 
peremptory;  his  dispatches  lucid  expositions  of  defi- 
nite policies.  The  special  characteristic  of  his  rule  lay- 
in  the  choice  of  tit  men  to  lead  an  expedition,  to  devise 
a  plan  of  strategy,  or  to  conduct  a  negotiation.  He 
utterly  discarded  seniority  as  a  ground  of  promotion. 
He  would  pick  out  for  service  new  men,  usually  young, 
often  unknown  men.  He  would  trust  them  with  full 
powers,  and  took  personal  care  to  give  them  resources 
adequate  for  each  task.  It  was  his  wonderful  power 
of  judging  men,  of  measuring  the  needs  of  each  under- 
taking beforehand,  of  insisting  on  rapidity  and  punc- 
tuality, of  following  up  each  blow  by  another,  that 
secured  each  dazzling  results  in  action.  Civilian  as  he 
was,  Pitt  filled  each  man  he  employed  with  that  pat- 
riotic passion  which  Frederick,  Kelson,  and  Napoleon 
infused  into  their  officers  and  men.  It  was  said  —  No 
one  ever  left  Pitt's  cabinet  without  feeling  himself  a 
braver  man. 

Though  he  was  "constitutional  minister"  in  a 
parliamentary  government,  Pitt  soon  became  as  per- 
emptory and  despotic  as  Frederick  or  Napoleon  him- 
self. Many  are  the  tales  of  his  dictatorial  ways.  He 
often  bearded  the  King,  as  when  George,  in  a  rage  at 
his  son's  signing  the  surrender  of  Kloster-Zeven,  cried 
out,  "  I  gave  him  no  orders  to  treat ! "  "  No,  Sir," 
said  Pitt,  "  but  you  gave  him  very  full  powers  ! "  The 
story  went  that  when  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  hesitated 
to  sign  Treasury  orders  for  army  stores,  Pitt  sent 
word  that  he  would  have  the  Duke  impeached.  When 
a  general  complained  that  he  could   not   obtain   the 


d4  CHATHAM  [chap. 

supplies  he  needed,  Pitt  sent  round  to  each.  Board  royal 
commands  to  have  these  demands  immediately  satis- 
fied. Lord  Anson  had  been  forced  on  Pitt  as  head  of 
the  Admiralty  by  the  King  and  Lord  Hardwicke, 
Anson's  father-in-law.  Pitt  compelled  the  Naval  Com- 
missioners to  countersign  his  own  dispatches,  which 
he  would  not  allow  them  to  read.  So  Lord  Temple 
declared,  and  that  he  actually  sent  out  fleets  with 
sealed  orders  without  suffering  the  Board  of  A  dmiralty, 
which  supplied  and  commissioned  them,  to  know 
whither  they  were  sent. 

From  the  first  Pitt  conceived  a  set  of  grand  schemes. 
He  found  his  country  at  war  with  France,  and  the 
great  Coalition  of  Sovereigns  ready  to  crush  Prussia 
and  Hanover.  He  decided  to  save  both  ;  and,  in  order 
to  create  a  diversion  to  the  west,  he  prepared  an 
invasion  of  France  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  At  the 
same  time  he  arranged  to  supply  Frederick  with  men 
and  money  without  stint.  He  sent  strong  reinforce- 
ments to  the  East  Indies  to  second  the  efforts  of  the 
Company,  where  the  genius  of  Clive  was  about  to 
found  an  Empire.  The  French  ports,  both  on  the 
Atlantic  and  in  the  Mediterranean,  were  to  be  watched 
and  blockaded,  whilst  the  French  fleets  were  to  be 
driven  from  the  seas.  Above  all,  the  French  settle- 
ment in  Canada  was  to  be  annexed,  and  the  British 
dominion  secured  in  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio.  These  mighty  results, 
in  distant  lands  and  in  four  different  continents,  were 
all  effected  within  a  few  years  by  one  who  was  neither 
Sovereign  nor  Conqueror,  but  a  decrepit  civilian  who 
only  left  St.  James's  Square  for  Hayes  or  the  waters 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  95 

of  Bath,  who  never  "  set  a  squadron  in  the  field,"  but 
who  "  organised  victory,"  as  was  said  of  Carnot,  by 
his  true  and  far-reaching  vision,  by  insight  into  human 
capacities,  by  fiery  energy,  and  by  infusing  into  a 
nation  his  own  lieroic  soul. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  first  expeditions  on 
the  Continent  were  anything  but  successful.  The 
Duke  of  Cumberland  was  defeated  in  Germany,  and 
made  a  pitiable  surrender,  which  his  father  repudiated, 
disowning  his  son  with  passion.  Pitt,  whom  the  Duke 
had  striven  to  degrade,  generously  stood  by  the  fallen 
commander,  and  enabled  him  to  escape  further  punish- 
ment by  resigning  his  ofiice  and  retiring  into  civil  life. 
He  then  induced  George  to  appoint  Prince  Ferdinand 
of  BrunsAvick  commander  of  an  army  of  30,000  Hano- 
verians, who  before  long  drove  the  French  from  the 
Electorate  and  protected  Frederick  on  that  side.  This 
at  last  overcame  the  ill-will  of  King  George ;  for  Pitt 
was  now  himself  become  "  a  Hanover-troop  minister," 
indeed  under  quite  altered  circumstances.  "  Give  me 
your  confidence.  Sire,"  said  the  minister,  "and  I  will 
deserve  it."  "  Deserve  my  confidence.  Sir,"  said  the 
King  in  turn,  "and  you  shall  have  it."  The  King, 
who  wanted  neither  sense  nor  a  rough  wit,  had  the 
best  of  the  altercation.  At  last  he  saw  that  Pitt  de- 
served his  confidence,  and  he  henceforth  steadily  gave  it. 

The  expeditions  against  the  coast  of  France  did 
not  effect  very  much.  A  very  powerful  fleet  was 
dispatched  to  Rochefort,  with  sealed  orders  to  seize 
that  fort.  A  large  army  was  placed  on  board,  and 
great  preparations  for  a  landing  were  made.  The 
whole    French  coast  was    alarmed,   and  the  nation 


96  CHATHAM  [chap. 

astonished.  Such  secrecy  was  observed  as  to  the 
objective  of  attack  that  Lord  Anson,  at  the  head  of 
the  Admiralty,  was  not  allowed  to  know  their  destina- 
tion. He  told  Pitt  that  it  was  impossible  to  comply 
with  his  orders  for  the  ships  and  their  equipment. 
Pitt  replied  that  he  would  have  Anson  impeached  if 
they  were  not  ready  at  the  time  ordered.  In  result, 
the  expedition  was  mismanaged  and  nothing  effective 
was  done.  A  fresh  expedition  was  organised,  which 
landed  and  attacked  St.  Malo,  but  with  small  results. 
A  third  expedition  destroyed  the  forts  at  Cherbourg, 
capturing  cannon  and  colours  and  ammunition.  A 
fourth  expedition  against  St.  Malo  met  with  a  dis- 
astrous repulse,  with  the  loss  of  a  thousand  men  in 
killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners. 

These  repeated  expeditions  to  attack  French  sea- 
ports have  been  severely  criticised  as  the  weakest  parts 
of  Pitt's  schemes,  and  even  as  preposterous  follies. 
They  were  indeed  very  costly  demonstrations.  Fox 
said  "  it  was  breaking  windows  with  guineas."  King 
George  said,  "  You  may  brag  of  taking  their  guns : 
they  will  brag  that  they  drove  you  away ! "  Lord 
George  Sackville  refused  to  command  the  last  expedi- 
tion, and  said  "  He  wanted  no  more  buccaneering." 
From  Pitt's  point  of  view  of  defeating  the  French, 
there  is  something  to  be  said  to  the  contrary.  Of  the 
four  expeditions,  the  last  only  had  ended  in  repulse 
and  defeat.  The  first  three  had  been  effected  abso- 
lutely without  loss  in  ships  or  men ;  and  if  they  had 
brought  no  permanent  advantage,  they  had  inflicted 
on  the  enemy  humiliation  and  alarm.  Pitt  well  remem- 
bered the  confusion  and  paralysis  caused  in  England 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  97 

at  the  panic  of  a  French  expedition  being  about  to 
invade  our  shores.  He  no  doubt  counted  on  the  effect 
in  France  of  four  actual  descents  on  French  soil,  and 
the  attack  and  capture  of  their  forts  and  fortresses. 
He  could  not  expect  to  retain  any  footing  on  the  terri- 
tory of  France.  But  he  amply  secured  his  main  objects 
—  to  make  the  Continent  feel  the  ascendency  of  Britain 
at  sea,  and  to  draw  off  French  forces  from  Germany  to 
the  defence  of  their  western  seaboard.  Frederick  of 
Prussia  and  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  admitted  that 
this  had  been  accomplished.  Wanton  and  idle  in 
themselves,  these  costly  attacks  on  the  French  ports 
must  be  judged  as  part  of  the  central  scheme  of  Pitt's 
policy.  This  now  was,  to  destroy  the  vast  colonial 
settlements  in  Asia,  Africa,  and  America  which  France 
had  been  building  up  for  a  generation,  and  to  plant 
on  their  ruins  a  still  vaster  British  Empire.  And  to 
secure  this  end  it  was  essential  to  crush  the  French 
naval  power,  and  to  paralyse  the  naval  bases  of  the 
French  fleets. 

Another  remarkable  scheme  of  Pitt's,  to  aid  in  the 
war  on  France,  was  his  secret  proposal  to  Spain  in 
1757  to  cede  Gibraltar,  which  for  fifty  years  had  been 
in  British  possession,  on  condition  of  Spain  joining  the 
war  against  France,  and  enabling  Britain  to  recover 
Minorca  from  the  French.  Pitt  induced  the  King  and 
his  cabinet  to  join  in  this  momentous  offer,  taking 
great  pains  with  a  long  dispatch  he  wrote  himself  in 
three  days  to  present  to  the  Spanish  Court  every 
argument  which  might  operate  on  their  minds.  The 
Spanish  Court  declined  to  entertain  the  proposal, 
having  no  taste  for  a  war  with  France,  however  great 

H 


98  CHATHAM  [chap. 

their  eagerness  to  recover  their  historic  fort.  Gibraltar 
accordingly  has  flown  the  Union  Jack  for  exactly  two 
hundred  years,  with  all  the  consequences  that  we 
know.  How  different  many  things  would  have  been 
if  Spain  had  listened  to  Pitt's  proposal !  That  it  should 
have  been  made  by  such  a  man  at  such  a  time  may 
serve  to  illustrate  the  range  of  his  ideas,  and  the 
ascendency  he  had  now  acquired  over  the  King  and 
his  advisers. 

"  The  warfare  of  1758  was  waged  through  all  the 
four  quarters  of  the  globe,"  says  Earl  Stanhope,  in 
the  grand  manner  of  his  great  kinsman  himself. 
Wherever  France  had  laid  the  foundations  of  Empire, — 
in  India,  in  Africa,  in  America,  —  there  Pitt,  not  con- 
tent with  bombarding  her  western  ports,  and  driving 
her  armies  out  of  Hanover,  continued  to  assail  her  by 
a  British  fleet  and  constant  expeditions.  The  French 
under  Colbert  had  wrung  from  the  Portuguese  and 
the  Dutch  the  valuable  colony  of  Senegal,  stretching 
for  five  hundred  miles  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  from 
Cape  Blanco  to  the  Gambia.  They  held  Fort  Louis  on  the 
mouth  of  the  Senegal,  and  fortified  the  island  of  Goree, 
which  commanded  the  Gambia.  A  Quaker  merchant 
having  proposed  to  Pitt  an  expedition  to  annex  the 
settlement,  which  this  "passive  resister,"  with  an  eye 
to  the  main  chance,  assured  him  could  be  effected 
"  without  bloodshed,"  he  straightway  dispatched  a 
fleet  with  about  one  thousand  marines  and  regular 
troops  —  in  what  would  now  be  called  "a.  peaceful 
mission  of  commerce."  The  French  forces  were  over- 
powered ;  and  for  some  years  Senegal  remained  under 
the  British  flag. 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  99 

This  ministry  of  Pitt  marks  also  the  foundation  of 
the  British  Empire  in  India,  which  is  usually  dated 
from  the  victory  of  Plassey  in  1757  over  the  Nabob  of 
Bengal  and  that  of  Wandewash  in  1761  over  the 
French  Lally.  But  these  events  belong  to  the  life  of 
Clive  or  of  Sir  Eyre  Coote,  not  to  that  of  Chatham ; 
and  they  need  not  be  recorded  here  except  in  outline. 
The  record  of  daring,  of  fraud,  of  rapacity,  of  genius 
and  heroism  by  which  that  wonderful  dominion  was 
rapidly  achieved  come  only  in  an  incidental  way  into 
the  career  of  Chatham.  When  he  first  entered  into 
power  in  England,  the  East  India  Company  were  still 
struggling  to  hold  their  ground  against  the  French, 
and  had  merely  an  insecure  foothold  in  Madras  and 
Calcutta.  Clive  was  restoring  their  fortunes  and 
making  his  own  by  marvellous  feats  of  audacity, 
vigour,  and  unscrupulous  genius  both  for  policy  and 
war.  He  saved  to  the  Company  Madras  and  the 
Carnatic;  he  was  the  real  founder  of  Calcutta;  he 
secured  Bengal.  He  struck  right  and  left  at  the 
French  settlements  or  the  Dutch,  and  made  the 
Hoogly  a  British  river.  The  British  then  turned 
upon  the  French  settlement,  and  by  the  sword  of  Sir 
Eyre  Coote  at  Wandewash,  the  defeat  of  the  brave 
Lally  Tollendal,  and  the  capture  of  Pondicherry, 
finally  extinguished  the  prospects  of  a  French  empire 
in  Hindustan.  Those  momentous  four  years  from  1757 
to  1761  had  changed  the  whole  future  of  the  Indian 
Peninsula.  But  the  home  government  had  no  great 
share  in  the  work,  beyond  supporting  the  Company 
with  able  soldiers  and  a  small  fleet.  It  was  the  star  of 
Pitt  rather  than  his  genius  which  made  his  ministry 


100  CHATHAM  [chap. 

coincide  with  the  birth  of  that  Raj  which  has  now 
made  the  King  of  England  Emperor  of  Hindustan. 
The  deeds  by  which  it  was  founded  cannot  be  set  down 
except  indirectly  to  increase  his  glory  or  to  burden 
his  last  account  at  the  Judgment-Seat  of  human 
history. 

Pitt  most  ardently  supported  the  Company  and  its 
ofiBcers  in  their  strviggles,  as  his  zealous  temper  in 
part  inspired  their  courage.  In  the  famous  speech  he 
made  in  the  Parliament  of  December  1757,  reported 
only  in  fragments  by  Horace  Walpole,  we  are  told  how 
he  "  burst  out  into  an  Eastern  panegyric.  There  he 
found  Watson,  Pococke,  and  Clive  :  —  what  astonishing 
success  had  Watson  had  with  only  three  ships,  which 
had  been  laid  up  for  some  time  on  land !  He  did  not 
stay  to  careen  this,  and  condemn  that,  but  at  once 
sailed  into  the  body  of  the  Ganges.  He  was  supported 
by  Clive,  that  man  not  born  for  a  desk ;  that  heaven- 
horn  General,  whose  magnanimity,  resolution,  deter- 
mination, and  execution  would  charm  a  King  of 
Prussia,  and  whose  presence  of  mind  astonished  the 
Indies ! "  We  may  feel  sure  that  these  were  not  Pitt's 
exact  words.  But  we  can  see  the  meaning,  and  can 
understand  how  the  thrill  of  them  would  pass  across 
the  ocean  to  Bengal  and  the  Carnatic. 

With  the  conquest  of  Canada  and  the  establishment 
of  the  British  name  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  it 
was  far  otherwise.  Here  the  design,  the  choice  of  men, 
the  preparation  of  the  armaments  both  by  sea  and 
land  was  the  work  of  Pitt,  and  almost  solely  his  direct 
and  personal  work.  This  is  the  part  of  his  policy 
which  produced  the  greatest  and  most  abiding  effects 


VI.]  FIRST   MINISTRY  101 

upon  the  face  of  the  world.  He  saw  from  the  first  the 
vast  possibilities  in  the  American  continent.  He  saw 
that  the  only  serious  rivals  to  be  feared  were, France 
or  Spain,  both  powers  having. fleiet,=i-  and.  strong. places 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlauti.c.  .  ^Vit-h  .a  yiew  pf 
detaching  Spain  from  FraD,Ge^ /p};tli  h^.d.s^vrts.'^rienciijt 
overtures  to  Spain  coupled  with  the  dazzling  bribe  of 
the  conditional  cession  of  Gibraltar  in  exchange  for 
Minorca.  He  now  determined  to  assail  the  French 
possessions  in  America  on  all  sides  at  once.  He  grasped 
the  essential  condition  of  success,  and  saw  the  cause  of 
the  late  disasters  which  had  befallen  his  first  attempts 
and  those  of  his  predecessors.  It  was  necessary  to 
send  an  overpowering  force,  and  at  the  same  time  by 
our  superior  sea-power  to  intercept  all  reinforcements 
from  Europe.  This  had  failed  in  the  year  1757.  Pitt 
now  prepared  a  still  larger  force,  which  was  to  be 
backed  up  with  several  fleets.  He  was  bent  on  nothing 
short  of  driving  the  French  flag  from  the  whole  North 
American  continent. 

The  preparations  for  the  eventful  year  1758  were 
on  a  formidable  scale,  which  might  make  Walpole  turn 
in  his  grave.  Supplies  were  voted  for  about  ten 
millions  and  a  half.  £1,861,000  was  devoted  to 
foreign  subsidies.  There  were  to  be  60,000  seamen 
and  86,500  land  forces,  or  including  the  Irish  service, 
100,000  men.  An  immense  fleet  of  forty-one  ships 
under  Admiral  Boscawen  Avas  sent  out  in  February  to 
reinforce  the  fleet  at  Halifax.  To  cut  off  reinforce- 
ments from  France,  Spain,  or  the  Mediterranean,  Lord 
Hawke  with  seven  ships  was  sent  to  blockade  the 
French  ports ;  and  Osborne  with  fifteen  ships  was  sent 


102  CHATHAM  [chap. 

to  cruise  along  the  coast  of  Spain,  and  cut  off  any  fleet 
from  the  Spanish  or  Mediterranean  ports.  Young, 
daring,  and  ambitious  soldiers  were  chosen  for  im- 
portant commands:  Wolfe,  Lord  Howe,  Amherst, 
Forbes,  men  of  -the  stamp  of  Clive,  who  were  promoted 
ovef  lili  cheir  seniors  in  rank.  Pitt  devised  three 
separate  expeditions,  two  directed  against  Canada,  one 
into  the  Mississippi  valley  ;  and  he  furnished  all  three 
with  ample  forces,  elaborate  instructions,  and  peremp- 
tory orders.  The  whole  was  based  on  exhaustive 
study  of  the  local  conditions  and  the  strategical 
problems. 

The  first  expedition  was  directed  against  Louisburg 
in  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  and  was  the  most  im- 
portant of  all.  Louisburg  was  the  most  valuable  port 
that  France  possessed  on  the  American  continent.  It 
commanded  the  entrance  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 
The  fleet  which  made  this  its  base  could  effectually 
close  the  whole  length  of  the  River  St.  Lawrence  and 
its  valley,  and  prevent  it  from  receiving  succour  by 
sea.  Against  that  cardinal  point  in  the  defences  of 
Canada,  Admiral  Boscawen  and  General  Amherst  were 
sent  in  June  with  a  fleet  of  150  sail  and  an  army  of 
nearly  12,000  men.  The  fortress  was  very  strong  and 
amply  prepared  for  a  siege.  The  invaders  were  far 
stronger  in  ships  and  in  men,  but  were  heavily  impeded 
by  bad  weather.  By  the  heroism  of  the  young  Wolfe 
and  the  audacity  and  resource  of  Boscawen's  seamen, 
Louisburg  fell  in  July,  and  with  it  the  island  of  St. 
John's  in  the  Gulf.  The  St.  Lawrence  was  hence- 
forth closed  to  France. 

It  is  no  part  of  the  Life  of  Pitt  to  describe  the  operar 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  103 

tions  of  war  achieved  by  the  fleets  and  armies  he 
dispatched.  When  the  ships  had  sailed  across  the 
Atlantic,  the  minister  at  home  had  no  power  to  in- 
fluence the  issue.  The  conquest  of  Canada,  the  cross- 
ing of  the  Alleghanies  and  securing  to  Britain  the 
valley  of  the  Ohio,  belong  to  the  history  of  England, 
to  the  biographies  of  Wolfe,  Amherst,  Forbes,  and 
Washington,  but  only  in  general  design  concern  the 
biographer  of  Pitt.  The  second  expedition  was  aimed 
at  that  long  basin  stretching  northwards  from  Fort 
William  Henry  at  the  foot  of  Lake  George,  through 
Forts  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  to  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  thence  by  the  Richelieu  river  to  Sorel  in 
the  valley  of  St.  Lawrence,  half-way  between  Montreal 
and  Quebec.  The  force  destined  to  strike  this  blow 
consisted  of  some  15,000  troops,  of  whom  6000  were 
British  regulars,  with  more  than  a  thousand  lake  boats. 
They  were  commanded  by  General  James  Abercrombie, 
who  owed  his  appointment  more  to  political  influence 
than  to  his  own  energy  or  resource ;  but  Pitt  had 
chosen  as  his  lieutenant  and  real  leader  the  young 
and  gallant  Lord  Howe,  whom  he  himself  called 
"the  complete  model  of  military  virtue."  Howe 
was  named  by  his  men  and  his  brother  officers,  as 
by  Wolfe  himself,  the  best  soldier  in  the  British 
army;  and  little  doubt  can  exist  that,  had  he  lived 
to  lead  the  expedition,  its  immense  strength  and 
equipment  would  have  given  it  victory.  But  on  the 
first  day  of  landing  from  Lake  George,  in  order  to 
approach  Ticonderoga,  Howe  was  killed  in  a  skirmish, 
possibly  by  a  shot  from  his  own  men  whilst  he  was 
leading  the  attack.      Abercrombie  was  incapable  of 


104  CHATHAM  [chap. 

following  up  so  adventurous  an  attack  on  a  fort 
defended  by  the  brilliant  Montcalm  with  3600  good 
men.  After  losing  2000  of  his  force,  the  feeble 
Abercrombie  beat  a  retreat  and  was  recalled  home 
amidst  the  bitter  groans  of  the  government  and  the 
nation. 

A  partial,  and  not  unimportant  success,  was  won 
by  Bradstreet  with  a  part  of  Abercrombie's  force. 
Having  persuaded  that  general  to  let  him  lead  3000 
provincial  troops  to  the  westwards  against  Fort  Oswego 
on  the  Ontario  Lake,  he  pushed  across  it  and  captured 
Fort  Frontenac,  which  stand  at  the  north-eastern  end 
of  Lake  Ontario,  whence  the  St.  Lawrence  river  issues 
to  the  sea.  With  the  surrender  of  Fort  Frontenac, 
Bradstreet  captured  all  the  French  ships  on  Lake 
Ontario,  which  henceforward  served  as  a  British  base. 
By  these  simultaneous  captures  of  Louisburg  and 
Frontenac,  though  separated  by  nearly  one  thousand 
miles  of  waterway,  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
was  closed  to  the  French,  both  at  its  source  in  Lake 
Ontario  on  the  south-west,  and  on  its  outfall  into 
the  Gulf  on  the  north-east.  And  at  the  same  time 
the  command  of  Lake  Ontario  brought  the  British 
within  measurable  distance  of  the  headwaters  of 
the  Allegheny  river  whereon  stood  Fort  Duquesne, 
the  spot  where  the  defeat  and  repulse  of  Braddock 
in  1755  had  roused  such  just  indignation  and  alarm. 

The  third  expedition  was  to  pass  due  west  from 
Pennsylvania,  to  cross  the  Alleghany  Mountains  and 
to  attack  Fort  Duquesne ;  which  lies  at  the  junction 
of  several  rivers  all  flowing  into  the  Ohio,  and  is 
situated  about  three  hundred  miles  from  the  Atlantic 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  105 

seaboard.  This  force  consisted  of  1400  Highlanders 
and  about  5000  or  6000  Colonials.  It  had  a  very 
arduous  task,  owing  to  the  approach  of  winter  and 
the  unknown  road  through  virgin  forests  and  a  lofty 
mountain  range.  It  was  commanded  by  General 
Forbes,  a  soldier  of  great  energy  and  prudence, 
having  as  his  second,  Colonel  George  Washington, 
whose  splendid  conduct  in  the  rout  of  Braddock 
three  years  before  had  raised  him  to  the  command  of 
the  Colonial  troops.  Forbes  started  from  Philadelphia 
in  July ;  but  his  excessive  caution  in  advancing  by 
stages  from  one  fortified  post  to  another,  the  moun- 
tainous route,  and  the  bad  weather,  delayed  him  so 
that  he  did  not  reach  Fort  Duquesne  until  the  end 
of  November.  He  found  it  evacuated  by  the  French 
and  the  fortifications  blown  up.  Their  force  was 
wholly  incapable  of  resisting  Forbes's  army ;  and  the 
capture  of  Frontenac  by  Bradstreet  had  stopped  the 
supplies  which  were  to  reach  them  by  way  of 
the  Northern  Lakes.  Fort  Duquesne  being  destroyed, 
Forbes,  stricken  as  he  was  with  mortal  disease,  planted 
a  new  fort  on  this  most  dominant  spot,  to  which  he 
gave  the  name  of  Pitt.  He  wrote  to  Pitt  (27th 
November):  "1  have  used  the  freedom  of  giving 
your  name  to  Fort  Duquesne,  as  I  hope  it  was  in 
some  measure  the  being  actuated  by  your  spirits 
that  now  makes  us  masters  of  the  place." 

Pitt  in  his  reply  (of  23rd  January  1759)  praises  in 
fitting  terms  the  well-concerted  plan,  the  prudence, 
judgment,  and  resolution  which  has  won  this  success 
"of  the  highest  importance."  He  presses  on  the 
general  the  need  of    using    every  effort    to    retain 


106  CHATHAM  [chap. 

control  of  tlie  Ohio  valley,  to  cultivate  the  loyal 
co-operation  and  union  of  the  Colonists,  and  to  con- 
ciliate and  form  alliances  with  the  Indian  tribes.  The 
genius  of  Pitt  at  once  descried  the  value  of  this  new 
possession.  Pittsburg  stands  on  the  junction  of  the 
Allegheny  and  the  Monongahela  rivers  with  the  grand 
Ohio ;  and  with  its  dependencies  it  has  to-day  a 
population  of  quite  half  a  million.  It  is  one  of  the 
great  industrial  centres,  and  the  point  of  junction 
of  immense  lines  of  railroad.  Neither  Pitt  nor 
Washington,  nor  any  man  in  that  century,  could 
possibly  have  foreseen  that  the  new  settlement  was 
to  grow  into  the  greatest  iron  and  coal  centre  of  the 
world,  as  little  as  they  could  have  imagined  how  a 
penniless  Scotch  lad  would  one  day  build  up  from 
out  its  lurid  furnaces  a  colossal  business,  of  which 
the  profits  were  ultimately  to  spread  across  America 
and  Britain  the  means  of  learning  and  culture.^  How 
few  of  all  the  toilers  in  those  mines  and  steel-yards, 
how  few  of  all  those  citizens  or  tourists  who  pass 
through  the  Iron  City  towards  the  Northern  Lakes 
or  the  Western  plains,  remember  how  the  name  of 
Pittsburg  recalls  the  fact  that  Pitt  and  Washington, 
separated  as  they  were  by  3000  miles  of  ocean,  com- 
bined in  planting  that  dominant  stronghold  whence 
the  Par  West  of  the  continent  was  ultimately  secured 
to  their  common  race. 

But  an  achievement  far  more  brilliant  in  itself,  and 

1  Andrew  Carnegie,  born  at  Dunfermline,  and  now  of  New  York 
and  Skibo  Castle,  developed  at  Pittsburg  the  immense  steel-works, 
and  thence  accumulated  the  vast  fortune  which  he  has  since  devoted 
to  the  cause  of  public  education. 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  107 

even  more  momentous  in  its  issue  on  the  future  of 
the  British  Empire,  was  now  undertaken  by  the 
aspiring  genius  of  Pitt.  It  was  nothing  less  than 
the  conquest  of  Canada  from  the  French,  who  had 
been  in  complete  occupation  of  that  vast  district  for 
two  centuries.  The  central  expedition  was  to  ascend 
the  St.  Lawrence  river  and  to  attack  the  cities  of 
Quebec  and  Montreal.  But  this  was  to  be  supported 
by  three  other  lines  of  attack :  one  from  the  Lakes 
George  and  Champlain  to  the  St.  Lawrence ;  the 
second  from  Fort  Niagara  on  Lake  Ontario  to  reach 
the  source  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river ;  the  third  from 
Pittsburg  to  Lake  Erie.  This  vast  area  of  combined 
operations,  extending  over  an  extent  of  six  hundred 
or  seven  hundred  miles  through  a  wild  country  with 
virgin  forests  and  unbridged  rivers,  could  hardly  be 
a  complete  success  even  in  the  most  perfect  conditions 
of  modern  war.  The  strategic  conception  was  gigantic 
and  practically  beyond  the  resources  of  the  age.  No 
one  of  the  three  supporting  movements  quite  effected 
its  object  or  reached  the  goal  —  which  was  the  St. 
Lawrence  valley — in  time.  But  important  results 
were  obtained  by  all  three;  and  they  greatly  con- 
tributed to  the  ultimate  triumph. 

The  main  task  was  entrusted  to  the  youthful 
General  James  Wolfe  —  who,  though  then  but  thirty- 
two,  had  seen  sixteen  years  of  active  service  in  war, 
and  had  fought  in  great  and  desperate  battles  in 
Germany,  in  France,  and  in  America.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-one  he  had  been  publicly  thanked  by  his 
commander.  At  twenty-two  he  had  won  his  rank  of 
Colonel.     If  he  had  been  in  command  at  Rochefort, 


108  CHATHAM  [chap. 

it  was  believed  the  attack  would  have  succeeded.  The 
conquest  of  Cape  Breton  was  mainly  his  work.  This 
was  the  youthful  hero  —  the  Nelson  of  the  Army  he 
has  been  called  —  whom  Pitt  selected  to  lead  the 
arduous  task  of  the  conquest  of  Canada. 

The  young  general  was  put  in  command  of  an  army 
of  some  8600  excellent  soldiers,  supported  by  a  fleet 
which  numbered  in  all  nearly  fifty  sail.  They  were 
opposed  by  the  gallant  Montcalm,  who  had  more  than 
15,000  men,  mostly  native  levies,  with  a  strong  and 
skilful  contingent  of  Indians.  The  story  of  that 
amazing  victory  belongs  rather  to  the  history  of 
England  and  of  the  British  Empire  than  to  the  Life  of 
Pitt.  What  Englishman  does  not  know  that  stirring 
and  pathetic  epic  ?  How,  for  eleven  weeks,  the 
British  force  sought  to  pierce  some  joint  in  the  vast 
defences  that  Montcalm  had  spread  round  Quebec  — 
how  the  fortress,  towering  like  another  Gibraltar 
above  the  rushing  tide  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  seemed 
to  defy  the  attacks,  whilst  Montcalm,  with  an  army 
nearly  double  that  of  Wolfe,  lay  entrenched  below  its 
ramparts  —  how  Wolfe  himself,  racked  with  disease, 
anxiety,  and  fever,  having  exhausted  every  device, 
and  having  lost  a  tenth  of  his  whole  command,  wrote 
home  to  Pitt  a  dispatch  full  of  ominous  doubts,  but 
ending  with  the  promise  of  one  last  effort  —  how,  by  a 
kind  of  heroic  intuition,  he  put  his  whole  force  on 
barges  at  night  and  silently  stole  past  the  sleeping 
enemy,  till  he  reached  the  other  side  of  the  mighty 
fortress  —  how  in  the  darkness  a  few  thousand  High- 
landers and  Grenadiers  scaled  the  precipitous  crags 
which  rise  three  hundred  feet  from  the  water's  edge 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  109 

and  dragged  up  there  a  single  cannon  —  how  in  the 
morning  the  French  general  to  his  amazement  found 
the  British  army  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle  on  the 
height  which  he  had  considered  unscaleable,  and  had 
given  no  adequate  guard  —  how  a  desperate  battle  took 
place  under  the  walls  of  the  citadel  —  short,  sharp, 
and  decisive,  a  battle  wherein  the  first  and  second 
generals  in  command  on  both  sides  fell  — how  Wolfe 
was  thrice  wounded  and  died  in  the  very  arms  of 
victory  within  a  few  yards  of  his  noble  opponent — • 
how  the  memory  of  both  is  enshrined  in  one  common 
monument,  dear  to  Briton  as  to  Frank  — how  this 
sudden,  unhoped  for,  almost  impossible  triumph  sent  a 
thrill  through  the  whole  British  race,  and  practically 
decided  the  mighty  issue  —  the  transfer  of  the  Northern 
half  of  the  American  continent  from  the  French  to  the 
English  Crown.  It  is  a  household  word  with  the 
English  race;  nor  need  the  circumstances  be  again 
rehearsed  in  the  Life  of  Pitt.  The  hand  that  did  the 
deed  was  the  hand  of  Wolfe.  But  the  voice  that 
bade  it  to  be  done  —  the  eye  that  saw  its  future  possi- 
bilities—  the  brain  which  conceived  it,  was  the  voice, 
the  eye,  the  brain  of  Pitt. 

The  joy  of  the  nation,  passing  from  the  depths  of 
anxiety  to  the  extravagance  of  triumph,  but  darkened 
by  the  loss  of  the  young  leader,  was  well  painted 
in  the  famous  passage  of  Walpole's  Memoirs.  "  The 
incidents  of  dramatic  fiction  could  not  be  conducted 
with  more  address  to  lead  an  audience  from  despon- 
dency to  sudden  exultation,  than  accident  prepared 
to  excite  the  passions  of  a  whole  people.  They  de- 
spaired —  they  triumphed  —  and  they  wept — for  Wolfe 


110  CHATHAM  [chap. 

had  fallen  in  the  hour  of  victory!  Joy,  grief,  curi- 
osity, astonishment,  were  painted  in  every  counten- 
ance; the  more  they  inquired,  the  higher  their 
admiration  rose.  Not  an  incident  but  was  heroic 
and  affecting!"  The  popular  instinct  coupled  the 
names  of  Pitt  and  Wolfe  as  the  authors  of  this 
astonishing  success,  w^hich  even  inspired  the  gentle 
soul  of  Cowper  to  celebrate  them  both  together  in 
his  Task  —  a  passage  wherein  patriotism  has  almost 
extinguished  poetry. 

The  capture  of  Quebec  after  a  series  of  hazards  and 
vicissitudes  as  striking  as  any  in  the  history  of  war, 
was  almost  followed  by  its  recapture.  The  French 
recovered  from  their  panic,  and  severely  defeated  the 
British  garrison,  who  were  only  saved  by  the  timely 
arrival  of  a  few  ships  of  war.  The  French  then  with- 
drew up  the  St.  Lawrence  for  a  last  stand  at  Montreal. 
From  East,  West,  and  South,  three  British  forces 
were  now  concentrated  on  the  city  —  one  from  the 
St.  Lawrence,  one  from  Lake  Champlain,  and  one  from 
Lake  Ontario  —  the  three  concentric  armies  as  origin- 
ally designed  by  Pitt,  and  now  amounting  to  17,000 
men.  Slowly,  but  surely,  in  spite  of  extraordinary 
difficulties  from  virgin  forests,  rapids,  and  rocks,  the 
three  British  armaments  met  at  Montreal.  Nothing 
remained  to  the  gallant  Frenchmen  but  unconditional 
surrender.  On  September  8,  1760,  Canada  and  all 
its  dependencies  passed  to  the  British  Crown.  French 
soldiers  and  sailors  were  sent  back  to  France  in  British 
ships.  Free  exercise  of  religion,  their  local  French 
law,  and  their  property,  were  guaranteed  to  all 
Canadians  and  to  all  Frenchmen  who  chose  to  remain. 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  111 

Thus  by  a  few  sudden  strokes,  half  a  continent 
passed  over  to  Great  Britain.  And  for  one  hundred 
and  forty  years  the  vast  wilderness  north  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes,  far  away  to  the 
Pacific,  has  been  steadily  filling  up  with  British 
settlers,  and  forming  a  vigorous  element  in  the  British 
Empire.  But,  socially  and  politically,  the  foundation 
of  Fort  Pitt,  and  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  the 
valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  was  an  even 
more  momentous  achievement.  A  few  years  before 
1760,  the  French  had  claimed  for  their  own  sphere  of 
influence  the  whole  American  continent  north  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  west  of  the  Ohio.  They  mainly 
controlled  the  native  Indian  tribes,  and  they  held 
military  posts  along  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  of  the  Mississippi.  This  dominion  was  far  too 
vast  for  France  in  the  age  of  Louis  xv.  to  maintain 
or  to  people.  From  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  to 
Cape  Breton,  the  key  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  is  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  two  thousand  miles.  The  claim 
was  not  based  on  population,  or  any  real  power.  But 
it  had  an  imposing  show,  and  it  rested  on  a  skilfully 
constructed  network  of  forts.  Had  the  claim  been  made 
good,  more  than  half  the  American  continent  would 
have  remained  under  the  French  flag,  would  have 
maintained  the  language,  laws,  and  political  system  of 
France. 

Mr.  J,  R.  Green,  the  Historian  of  the  English 
People,  tells  us  that  "  with  the  triumph  of  Wolfe,  the 
history  of  the  United  States  began,"  —  "  Pitt  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  great  Republic  of  the  West." 
"Really  a  considerable  Fact  in  the  History  of  the 


112  CHATHAM  [chap. 

World,"  says  Carlyle  —  "  Fact  principally  due  to  Pitt." 
This  is  no  place  to  moralise  over  the  fierce  rivalry 
of  races  and  the  selfish  ambition  of  statesmen.  The 
historical  facts  are  our  immediate  concern.  And  no 
years  in  modern  history  are  more  pregnant  with 
incalculable  issues  than  those  closing  years  of  the 
reign  of  George  ii.,  wherein  it  was  finally  decided  that 
the  English  language,  common  law,  literature,  and 
blood,  should  be  settled  on  the  continent  of  America 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  from  the  Arctic 
Ocean  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  Colonies  felt  the 
great  future  that  was  now  opened  to  them  with  a 
clear  vision  which  was  hardly  possible  in  Europe. 
The  pulpits  of  New  England  resounded  with  thanks- 
giving, and  a  young  preacher  at  Boston  declared  that, 
with  the  continued  blessing  of  Heaven,  the  Colonies 
"will  become,  in  another  century  or  two,  a  mighty 
empire  "  —  "  not  independent  of  the  mother  country," 
he  added.     Such  are  the  forecasts  of  man ! 

Full  of  visions  of  a  transoceanic  Empire  to  be, 
Pitt  relentlessly  pursued  his  scheme  to  crush  the 
maritime  power  of  France  and  of  Spain,  the  only  two 
powers  which  then  had  to  be  considered  at  sea.  He 
saw  clearly,  as  Captain  Mahan  has  lucidly  shown, 
that,  if  France  had  been  driven  from  America  and 
from  India,  and  Spain  had  been  checked  in  the  West 
Indies,  it  had  been  effected  by  the  naval  ascendency 
of  Britain.  And  as  to  Pitt  and  to  the  men  of  his 
age  colonies  meant  exclusive  Commerce,  and  the 
monopoly  of  Trade  meant  wealth,  and  commercial 
wealth  meant  national  strength,  Pitt  passionately 
aimed  at  barring  the  rivals  of  his  country  from  found- 


VI.]  FIRST   MINISTRY  113 

ing  colonial  possessions  or  pushing  a  transoceanic 
trade.  He  could  nurse  no  illusion  as  to  the  possibility 
of  holding  any  French  territory  in  Europe.  But  he 
designed  to  crush  any  French  settlement  in  any  part  of 
the  world ;  and  he  thoroughly  understood  that  France 
would  be  exhausted  in  the  effort  to  retain  any  trans- 
marine possession  ;  whilst,  by  supporting  Frederick  of 
Prussia,  he  caused  her  to  drain  herself  in  continental 
wars. 

These  schemes  were  perfectly  intelligible  and  con- 
sistently followed;  and  whatever  we  think  of  their 
justice  or  wisdom,  they  were  designed  by  a  true 
master  of  statecraft.  The  conquest  of  French  colonies 
on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  was  followed  by  the 
capture  of  Guadeloupe  and  Marie  Galante,  and  of  some 
small  islands  in  the  West  Indies.  The  French  were 
now  roused  to  make  reprisals  by  a  home-thrust  on 
their  enemy,  and  the  Due  de  Choiseul  boldly  resolved 
on  a  fresh  invasion  of  England.  Great  preparations 
were  made  at  all  ports ;  transports  were  collected ; 
ships  of  the  line  equipped ;  and  troops  assembled  at 
various  points.  They  supposed  that,  as  large  fleets 
and  armies  had  been  dispatched  by  Pitt  to  various 
parts  of  the  world,  a  descent  on  the  English  coast 
might  be  effected.  They  did  not  rightly  estimate  the 
difference  between  a  Pitt  and  a  Newcastle.  In  1756 
England  had  looked  forward  with  alarm  to  a  French 
invasion.     In  1759  it  was  treated  with  scorn. 

The  English  minister  calmly  awaited  the  attack 
without  weakening  his  forces  abroad.  He  proudly 
reminded  the  Spanish  government,  which  was  being 
solicited  by  France  as  an  ally,  that  the  King's  regular 


114  CHATHAM  [chap. 

forces  in  these  islands  amounted  to  more  than  40,000 
men,  that  thirty-five  ships  of  the  line,  besides  frigates, 
were  manned  and  equipped  for  home  service.  Over  and 
above  this,  the  militia  was  called  out  in  full ;  bounties 
were  offered  to  volunteer  seamen  and  landsmen. 
Large  sums  in  aid  of  parliamentary  supplies  were 
subscribed  by  London  and  the  principal  cities.  A 
squadron  was  stationed  off  Dunkirk  to  blockade  the 
French  in  that  port ;  and  a  more  powerful  fleet  under 
Admiral  Hawke  blockaded  Brest.  Rodney  bombarded 
the  French  transports  preparing  in  Havre.  Boscawen 
with  fourteen  ships  watched  the  port  of  Toulon  in  the 
Mediterranean ;  and,  when  the  French  fleet  had  issued 
through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  he  chased  them  and 
destroyed  or  took  five  ships  off  Cape  Lagos,  near  the 
southern  angle  of  Portugal;  and  he  drove  the  re- 
mainder of  the  French  ships  into  Cadiz,  where  they 
were  blockaded. 

The  French  scheme  of  invasion  was  still  persisted 
in.  A  violent  storm  in  October,  driving  away  the 
blockading  forces,  enabled  two  of  their  fleets  to  set 
sail ;  one  from  Dunkirk,  and  one  from  Brest.  The 
fleet  that  escaped  from  Dunkirk  was  driven  round 
Scotland  to  Ireland,  and  finally  was  captured  in  the 
Irish  Channel.  The  larger  fleet  from  Brest  was  driven 
into  Quiberon  Bay,  a  most  dangerous  and  rocky  coast ; 
where  Hawke,  by  splendid  seamanship  and  rare 
audacity,  broke  up  the  fleet  of  Conflans  of  twenty-one 
ships  of  the  line,  and  practically  annihilated  the  navy 
of  France.  The  naval  victory  of  Quiberon  Bay,  gained 
almost  entirely  by  skill  and  daring  in  handling  ships 
in  a  gale  on  a  treacherous  coastj  at  a  loss  in  killed  of 


VI.]  FIRST  MINISTRY  115 

not  more  than  forty  men,  ranks  with  La  Hogue  and 
Trafalgar  in  the  history  of  the  British  navy.  For  a 
generation  France  ceased  to  be  a  great  Sea  Power. 

Not  content  with  tearing  from  France  her  nascent 
dominion  in  India,  her  new  colonies  on  the  Senegal  in 
Africa,  some  West  Indian  islands,  and  the  whole  of 
her  vast  territories  on  the  North  American  continent, 
Pitt  resolutely  supported  Frederick  in  his  war  with 
France  and  her  allies,  and  gave  him  immense  subsidies 
year  by  year,  and  no  small  forces  on  land.  He  de- 
clared "  that  America  could  be  won  in  Germany  "  — 
meaning,  no  doubt,  that  if  France  was  made  a  principal 
in  the  Seven  Years'  War  to  crush  Prussia,  and  thus 
exhausted  herself  in  the  struggle,  she  would  leave 
Canada  and  the  Mississippi  valley  to  be  conquered  by 
the  British.  Pitt,  says  Carlyle,  was  "  King  of  England 
for  four  years,"  and  proved  himself  to  be  Frederick's 
principal  and  almost  his  only  help.  "Blessing"  is 
Carlyle's  phrase;  and,  whether  we  accept  that  term 
or  not,  we  may  take  the  biographer's  word  for  it  that 
Frederick  largely  owed  his  salvation  to  Pitt's  alliance, 
nor  was  he  slow  to  acknowledge  it. 

The  events  of  that  long  and  bloody  strife  belong  to 
the  history  of  Europe  and  of  Germany,  rather  than  to 
the  Life  of  Pitt.  The  part  played  in  it  by  England 
was  intermittent,  subordinate,  and  to  a  great  extent 
financial.  In  four  years  Frederick  received  from 
England  £2,680,000  sterling  in  money.  Six  treaties 
of  alliance  were  made  in  the  same  period.  Pitt  began 
by  taking  the  Hanoverian  army  of  the  Elector  into 
English  pay.  He  supported  George  ii.,  when  the  King 
repudiated  the  treaty  of  Kloster-Zeven  made  by  his 


116  CHATHAM  [chap. 

son,  which  had  opened  Hanover  to  the  French,  and 
exposed  Prussia  on  her  north-western  frontier.  He 
then  put  the  Hanoverian  forces  into  the  command 
of  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  one  of  Frederick's 
best  generals ;  and  he  placed  a  strong  British  con- 
tingent under  the  Prince's  orders.  At  the  battle  of 
Minden,  on  the  Weser,  Ferdinand  with  inferior  numbers 
inflicted  a  great  defeat  on  the  French.  The  English 
infantry  and  artillery  contributed  to  the  success  in  no 
small  degree,  and  the  enemy  would  have  been  utterly 
routed  had  it  not  been  for  the  disloyal  refusal  of 
Lord  George  Sackville,  the  commander  of  the  British 
cavalry,  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  chief  of  whom  he 
was  jealous.  Sackville  was  tried  by  court-martial, 
dismissed  from  the  army,  and  was  never  forgiven  by 
the  King  or  by  Pitt.  The  minister  indeed  gave  the 
heartiest  support  to  the  German  Prince,  and  placed 
his  victory  on  a  par  with  that  of  Hawke.  The  condi- 
tion of  France,  as  Voltaire  says,  was  now  disastrous  : 
her  armies  beaten  —  her  navy  destroyed  —  her  public 
credit  bankrupt. 

These  tremendous  efforts  of  Great  Britain  in  four 
different  continents  had  not  been  accomplished  with- 
out a  lavish  sacrifice  of  ships,  material,  and  money. 
When  Pitt  opened  the  session  of  1758,  he  made  no 
attempt  to  disguise  the  cost  and  the  difficulties  of  the 
situation.  He  seemed  to  glory  in  his  lavish  estimates 
—  "  heaps  of  millions,"  he  said,  "  must  be  raised."  In 
that  year  £10,486,457  was  voted ;  60,000  seamen  and 
86,500  land  forces,  and  14,000  for  Ireland.  For  the 
ye^r  1759,  £12,761,310  was  voted.  For  the  year  1760, 
£15,503,563  was  voted,   with   an    army   of    100,000 


VI.]  FIRST  MmiSTRY  117 

men,  and  also  20,000  militia.  The  year  1760  was 
the  crowning  moment  of  Pitt's  war  ministry.  Madras 
was  added  to  Calcutta ;  Canada  and  the  Ohio  valley 
were  cleared  of  the  French  ;  four  West  Indian  islands 
had  been  captured,  and  the  Senegal  colony  in  Africa. 
The  French  ports  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay  and  in  the 
Mediterranean  had  been  continuously  blockaded,  and 
the  navy  of  France  had  been  annihilated.  Lagos, 
Quebec,  Minden,  Quiberon  Bay,  were  decisive  victories. 
And  twenty  thousand  British  troops  were  fighting  in 
Germany  in  support  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  The 
instinct  of  the  nation  justly  attributed  these  rapid 
triumphs  to  the  inspiration  of  the  statesman  who 
designed  them.  And  our  historian  has  confirmed  this 
view  in  words  of  hearty  applause.  "  The  ardour  of  his 
soul  had  set  the  whole  kingdom  on  fire.  It  inflamed 
every  soldier  who  dragged  the  cannon  up  the  heights 
of  Quebec,  and  every  sailor  who  boarded  the  French 
ships  among  the  rocks  of  Brittany.  The  minister, 
before  he  had  been  long  in  office,  had  imparted  to  the 
commanders  whom  he  employed  his  own  impetuous, 
adventurous,  and  defying  character." 

In  the  same  year  a  sudden  event  changed  the  whole 
face  of  the  political  world,  and  reacted  profoundly  on 
the  career  of  Pitt.  George  ii.  died  by  a  rupture  of 
the  heart  at  Kensington,  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven. 
Having  resisted  the  claims  of  Pitt  for  many  years,  and 
having  excluded  him  from  many  ministries,  George 
had  at  last  given  Pitt  his  entire  confidence,  and  had 
zealously  seconded  all  his  schemes.  It  was  truh' 
said  that  Pitt  had  been  King  these  four  years.  As 
Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  has  happily  expressed  it :  "  Pitt's 


118  CHATHAM  [chap.  vi. 

ideal  was  to  be  a  *  Patriot  King '  —  only  his  King  was 
to  be  William  —  not  George."  But  George  ii.  was  now 
succeeded  by  George  iii.,  who  had  been  trained  from 
boyhood  by  his  mother  to  insist  on  being  King  him- 
self, who  was  utterly  out  of  sympathy  with  Pitt  as 
a  man  and  with  his  policy  as  a  statesman,  and  who 
was  under  the  influence  of  a  feeble  and  ambitious 
favourite.  The  first  object  of  both  was  to  undermine 
and  displace  Pitt.  From  this  day  he  ceases  to  wield 
the  power  of  England,  and  to  be  responsible  for  the 
era  of  vacillating  counsels  and  short-sighted  measures 
to  which  she  was  soon  to  be  committed. 


CHAPTER  VII 

FALL    FROM    POWER 

From  October  1760,  when  George  ii.  died,  until 
October  1761,  when  Pitt  resigned  office,  he  was  in 
name  Pirst  Minister,  but  he  was  not  in  power,  he 
was  no  longer  "  king."  George  in.,  destined  to  be 
for  many  years  the  evil  genius  of  our  country,  bred 
up  an  Englishman,  a  Tory,  and  a  bigot,  had  small 
care  for  Hanover,  little  interest  in  continental  politics, 
and  was  resolved  to  have  his  own  way  in  spite  of  the 
Magnates,  Parliament,  or  the  People.  His  aim  was 
to  free  himself  from  the  entanglement  of  foreign  wars, 
from  popular  pressure,  and  from  Pitt.  His  first  act 
was  to  call  to  the  Cabinet  Lord  Bute,  the  favourite 
of  his  mother,  whom  he  at  once  made  his  chief  coun- 
sellor and  agent.  George's  first  speech  to  his  Council 
was  drawn  up  by  Bute,  without  concert  with  Pitt  or 
other  ministers.  As  spoken,  it  talked  of  "a  bloody 
and  expensive  war,  and  of  obtaining  an  honourable 
and  lasting  peace."  Sentiments  in  themselves  sound, 
and  now  shared  by  the  better  part  of  the  nation ;  but 
manifestly  aimed  at  the  policy  of  the  great  minister. 
Pitt  at  once  went  to  Bute  and,  after  a  long  altercation, 
had  the  printed  report  of  the  King's  speech  changed 

119 


120  CHATHAM  [chap. 

to  "an  expensive,  but  just  and  necessary  war  "  ;  and, 
after  honourable  jjeace,  he  got  inserted  the  words  "  in 
concert  with  our  allies." 

In  a  few  months  Lord  Bute  was  made  Secretary  of 
State  conjointly  with  Pitt,  and  virtually  displacing 
him  ;  Legge  was  dismissed  from  the  Exchequer  ;  and 
the  whole  Cabinet,  except  Lord  Temple,  were  pre- 
paring to  make  an  end  both  of  war  and  of  Pitt. 
France  was  now  opening  negotiations  for  peace. 
Whether  these  were  sincere  may  be  doubted,  as  the 
French  minister,  the  Due  de  Choiseul,  was  at  the 
same  time  making  secret  overtures  to  Spain  to  join 
France,  and  Spain  was  pressing  France  to  continue 
the  war.  Pitt  was  willing  to  consider  the  French 
terms  of  treaty,  which  were  on  the  basis  of  uti  x>ossi- 
detis,  but  with  different  dates  for  India,  America,  and 
Europe  (1st  September,  1st  July,  1st  May,  1761). 
Whilst  willing  to  send  an  envoy,  Pitt  pressed  on  the 
attack  upon  Belle  Isle,  a  rocky  island  lying  off  the 
coast  of  Brittany.  Worthless  as  it  was  in  itself,  its 
possession  would  be  a  standing  humiliation  to  France, 
and  would  serve  to  blockade  the  Breton  coast  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Loire.  Thither  Pitt  sent  a  squadron 
and  an  army  of  12,000  men.  After  an  obstinate 
defence  the  garrison  of  3500  men  capitulated  and 
surrendered  the  island.  With  this  fresh  conquest  in 
his  hands,  Pitt  offered  peace  on  the  terms  of  uti  possi- 
detis, either  on  the  signature  of  the  treaty  or  for  the 
dates  of  1st  July,  1st  September,  and  1st  November. 
Long  pourparlers  and  reciprocal  offers  and  concessions 
passed  between  Paris  and  London,  in  which  it  may 
be  doubted  if  either  side  was  quite  sincere.     When 


vii.]  FALL   FROM   POWER  121 

Clioiseul  demanded  the  restitution  of  Cape  Breton  at 
the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  Pitt  insisted  on 
continuing  to  support  Prussia  in  arms,  it  may  be 
taken  that  the  two  diplomatists  were  playing  a  game 
of  bluff. 

At  the  end  of  July,  Pitt's  demands  for  a  Treaty 
were :  — 

(1)  The   cession   of  all   Canada,  its  dependencies, 

and  all  islands  in  the  Gulf  and  river  of 
St.  Lawrence,  with  the  exclusive  right  of 
fishing  there.  He  rejected  the  French  terms 
as  to  Louisiana. 

(2)  The  cession  by  Prance  of  Senegal  and  Goree  in 

Africa. 

(3)  Dunkirk  to  be  reduced  as  stipulated  at  Utrecht 

in  1713. 

(4)  Equal  partition  of  the  four  Neutral  Islands  in 

the  West  Indies. 

(5)  The  island  of  Minorca  to  be  restored  to  Eng- 

land. 

(6)  All  French  conquests  in  Germany,  whether  taken 

from  Hesse,  Brunswick,  Hanover,  or  Prussia, 
to  he  restored  and  evacuated. 
In  return  England  would  surrender  the  islands 
of  Belle  Isle,  and  Guadeloupe  and  Marie  Gal- 
ante  in  the  West  Indies. 
These  terms,  as  might  be  expected,  were  rejected 
by  France. 

Pitt  held  firm,  resolved  that  "  no  Peace  of  Utrecht 
should  stain  the  annals  of  England,"  continuing  to  use 
the  imperious  tone  in  which  he  had  received  all  over- 
tures.    And  he  now  became  aware  that  an  attempt  was 


122  CHATHAM  [chap. 

being  made  to  drag  Spain  into  the  quarrel.  Choiseul, 
indeed,  committed  the  fatal  blunder  of  insisting  that 
Spain  as  well  as  France  had  grievances  to  be  redressed. 
He  had  the  impudence  to  send  a  dispatch  formulating 
a  series  of  demands  on  behalf  of  Spain.  It  was  indeed 
a  gross  diplomatic  offence  for  France,  when  treating 
for  peace,  to  propose  new  hostile  demands  in  the  name 
of  a  power  with  whom  England  was  ostensibly  on 
friendly  terms.  Whether  definitely  so  informed  or 
not,  Pitt  divined  the  existence  of  concert  between 
the  powers.  His  indignation  boiled  over  in  language 
which  he  might  have  used  to  Newcastle  or  to  Fox, 
but  which  was  strange  to  the  conventions  of  diplo- 
matic intercourse.  "  His  Majesty  will  not  suffer  the 
disputes  with  Spain  to  be  blended  in  any  manner 
whatever  in  the  negotiation  of  peace  between  the 
two  Crowns.  —  It  will  be  considered  an  affront  to  his 
Majesty's  dignity.  It  is  expected  that  France  icill  not 
at  any  time  presume  a  right  of  intermeddling  in  such 
disputes  hetioeen  Great  Britain  and  Spaing 

Pitt  now  saw  clearly  that  neither  France  nor  Spain 
desired  peace  on  any  terms  which  he  would  accept. 
And,  in  fact,  on  15th  August  the  "Family  Compact" 
was  signed.  It  was  nothing  less  than  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance  between  the  two  Bourbon 
Monarchies,  binding  them  to  make  no  terms  with  their 
common  enemies  except  by  common  consent.  And,  by 
a  separate  and  secret  treaty,  Spain  undertook,  in  ex- 
change for  the  restoration  of  Minorca  by  France,  to 
declare  war  on  England  on  1st  May  1762,  if  France 
and  England  should  be  then  engaged  in  hostilities. 
This  was  in  fact  the  very  alliance  of  the  House  of 


VII.]  FALL   FROM  POWER  123 

Bourbon  which  had  led  to  the  War  of  the  Spanisli 
Succession.  The  treaty  and  its  terms  were  kept  secret ; 
but  Pitt  soon  understood  its  meaning ;  and,  by  the 
middle  of  September,  he  was  warned  by  his  agents  of 
the  preparations  for  war  then  being  made  in  Spain. 

He  immediately  broke  off  the  negotiations  with 
France,  recalled  his  envoy  from  Paris,  and  dismissed 
the  French  envoy  from  London.  Pitt  now  kept  strictly 
in  his  own  hands  the  negotiations  which  had  been  pro- 
tracted for  some  four  months.  They  are  very  intricate 
and  continually  varied,  raising  many  important  pro- 
blems, amongst  them  the  Newfoundland  Fisheries 
question,  which  has  embarrassed  diplomacy  for  some 
two  centuries  and  was  settled  only  in  our  own  day. 
But  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  describe  these  elaborate 
negotiations,  in  which  France  was  not  well  served,  and 
England  was  represented  by  a  man  of  imperious  nature 
and  insatiable  patriotism.  Choiseul  was  no  doubt 
anxious  to  save  his  king  and  country  in  their  desperate 
strait,  but  he  was  not  willing  to  pay  Pitt's  price,  which 
meant  the  sacrifice  of  all  France  had  won  in  Germany 
as  well  as  of  all  she  had  lost  in  the  Far  East  and  the 
Far  West.  With  Pitt  the  sine  qua  non  of  peace  involved 
the  upholding  of  Frederick  of  Prussia.  On  that  he 
wrote,  "  his  Majesty's  intentions  will  be  found  fixed 
and  unalterable."  With  Choiseul,  the  sine  qua  non  was 
the  vindication  of  Maria  Theresa,  the  maintenance  of 
the  House  of  Bourbon,  and  the  means  of  restoring  the 
French  navy.  Pitt  was  ready  to  settle  all  extra- 
European  questions,  provided  they  could  be  arranged 
so  as  to  secui-e  the  triumphs  of  his  country  in  war.  He 
would  not  make  a  fresh  Peace  of  Utrecht,  nor  would 


124  CHATHAM  [chap. 

lie  abandon  Frederick.  And  the  suggestion  of  a  con- 
spiracy to  found  a  new  Bourbon  preponderance  in 
Europe  roused  him  to  fierce  indignation. 

Not  content  with  breaking  off  negotiations  with 
Prance,  Pitt  insisted  on  declaring  war  with  Spain. 
Macaulay  has  pronounced  this  to  be  "  a  wise  and 
resolute  counsel "  ;  and,  from  the  point  of  view  of  in- 
creasing the  ascendency  of  Britain  it  was  not  only  this, 
but  almost  inevitable.  Pitt  urged  that  Spain  was 
manifestly  preparing  for  war,  her  treasure-ships  and 
merchantmen  could  be  seized  on  their  way  to  Europe 
and  would  defray  the  cost  of  the  war,  and  her  American 
colonies  could  be  seized  without  any  new  armaments. 
He  conceived  a  grand  scheme  to  despoil  Spain  of  her 
colonies  as  he  had  despoiled  Prance  of  hers.  He 
arranged  for  a  descent  on  Panama,  and  thence  the  con- 
quest of  Spanish  America;  from  that  he  would  seize 
Havannah,  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  Manilla.  On 
18th  September  1761  he  represented  to  the  Council 
his  purpose  of  immediate  war  with  Spain.  "  If  any  war 
could  provide  its  own  resources,"  he  said,  "  it  was  war 
with  Spain.  Her  supplies  lay  at  a  distance,  and  as 
we  were  masters  of  the  sea,  might  easily  be  cut  off." 
"  Such  a  bold  but  necessary  procedure  would  teach  not 
only  Sjiain  but  Europe  the  dangerous  presumption  of 
dictating  to  Great  Britain."  Louis  le  Grand  in  all  his 
glory,  befooled  by  all  his  flatterers,  had  hardly  used 
bigger  words.  But,  as  Pitt  himself  said  in  later  years, 
"the  Council  trembled."  All  members  of  the  Cabinet, 
except  Temple,  raised  objections  to  a  new  war. 

The  Cabinet  delayed,  and  held  three  adjourned 
sittings.     Pitt  pressed  his  views  with  renewed  energy. 


VII.]  FALL  FROM  POWER  125 

"  This  was  the  time  for  humbling  the  whole  House  of 
Bourbon ;  if  this  opportunity  were  neglected,  it  might 
never  be  recovered ;  and,  if  he  could  not  prevail  in 
this  instance,  it  was  the  last  time  he  should  sit  in 
council.  He  thanked  the  ministers  of  the  late  King 
[not  those  brought  in  by  George  iii.]  for  their  sup- 
port; he  was  himself  called  to  the  ministry  by  the 
voice  of  the  people,  to  whom  he  considered  himself 
accountable  for  his  conduct ;  and  he  would  no  longer 
remain  in  a  situation  which  made  him  responsible  for 
measures  which  he  was  no  longer  allowed  to  guide." 

This  was  in  the  vein  of  Scipio  Africanus  before  the 
Senate,  or  of  Oliver  Cromwell  dismissing  the  Long 
Parliament,  rather  than  the  tone  of  a  constitutional 
minister  in  a  Cabinet  Council.  On  this  occasion  his 
colleagues  do  not  seem  to  have  "  trembled,"  but  they 
refused  to  follow  him.  And  the  President,  the  veteran 
Carteret-Granville,  is  said  to  have  retorted,  "  that  he 
was  not  sorry  the  gentleman  would  leave  them,  as  in 
any  other  case  they  would  have  to  leave  him.  When 
he  talks  of  being  responsible  to  the  people,  he  talks 
the  language  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  forgets 
that  at  this  board  he  is  only  responsible  to  the  King." 
We  have  no  proof  that  either  of  these  speeches  was 
correctly  reported.  But  in  substance  they  represent 
the  conflicting  views  of  Pitt  and  his  colleagues.  On 
5th  October  1761  Pitt  and  Lord  Temple  resigned  their 
places,  after  submitting  their  views  in  a  written  paper 
to  the  King. 

This  was  a  truly  momentous  event,  affecting  the 
history  of  Britain,  of  Europe,  and  even  of  the  world. 
The  passion  and  folly  of  the  new  King  of  Spain  and 


126  CHATHAM  [chap. 

the  blind  ambition  of  Spanish  and  French  ministers 
made  a  Spanish  war  inevitable.  "Within  a  few  months 
Spain  herself  declared  war,  in  spite  of  the  pacific 
tendencies  of  George  iii.  and  his  new  advisers.  In 
that  war  not  a  few  of  the  schemes  planned  by  Pitt  and 
the  results  he  had  foreseen  actually  took  effect.  The 
pride  of  France  would  not  brook,  in  spite  of  all  her 
disasters  and  her  exhaustion,  to  surrender  all  her 
colonies  as  well  as  all  she  had  fought  for  in  Europe ; 
to  give  up  all  her  hopes  of  founding  a  great  Eastern 
and  a  great  Western  Empire,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
suffer  Prussia  to  rise  to  the  position  of  a  first-class 
power  in  Germany.  That,  however,  was  exactly  what 
Pitt  was  resolved  to  effect.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that, 
if  circumstances  had  favoured  him,  this  result  would 
have  been  effected  far  more  completely  than  it  was. 

The  position  of  Great  Britain  at  the  close  of  the 
year  1761  was  one  of  absolute  dominion  of  the  seas  to 
an  extent  hardly  ever  equalled  before  or  since.  Having 
150  ships  of  the  line,  besides  fleets  of  lesser  vessels, 
manned  by  nearly  80,000  seamen,  who  were  at  that 
period  without  any  rivals,  England  was  perfectly 
secure  at  home,  whilst  she  held  the  commerce  of  the 
seas  and  all  transoceanic  settlements  within  her  grasp. 
No  other  nation  possessed  even  the  nucleus  of  marine 
power;  and  all  were  debarred  from  reaching  such 
colonies  as  they  still  retained.  Had  George  ii.  lived 
a  few  years  longer,  had  Pitt  maintained  his  health,  his 
influence  with  the  King,  Parliament,  and  the  Nation, 
it  was  quite  probable  that  every  possession  of  France, 
Spain,  or  Holland,  outside  of  Europe,  would  have 
passed  to  the  British  Crown,  and  that  these  countries 


vii.]  FALL  FROM  POWER  127 

would  have  been  forced  to  make  peace  on  terms  of 
extreme  humiliation. 

Britain  alone  was  neither  exhausted  nor  drained  of 
money  or  of  men.  A  war  to  conquer  commerce  and 
colonies,  rather  than  settled  territories,  not  only  paid 
its  own  way,  but  was  actually  a  new  source  of  wealth 
and  strength.  The  crowning  victory  of  Quiberon  Bay, 
where  the  fleet  of  France  was  annihilated,  had  cost  us 
but  forty  lives.  .  Had  Pitt  been  suffered  to  seize  the 
Spanish  treasure-ships,  he  would  have  paid  the  cost  of 
the  war  with  Spain  twice  over.  British  trade  and 
prosperity  had  never  risen  so  high  as  during  the  war. 
When  the  City  of  London  carved  on  the  monument  of 
Pitt  the  memorable  words  that  "commerce  had  been 
made  to  flourish  by  war,"  it  was  not  at  all  an  idle 
boast.  It  was  recognised  as  a  fact  by  another  genera- 
tion after  Pitt's  death.  The  supplies  voted  for  1761 
were  nearly  £20,000,000  —  i.e.  nearly  twice  as  much 
as  was  voted  in  1758,  and  £4,000,000  more  than  the 
votes  for  1760.  In  Walpole's  time  they  had  been 
£8,000,000.^  Everything  points  to  the  conclusion 
that  if  Pitt  had  retained  his  authority  and  his  mental 
force  for  a  short  period  more,  he  would  have  raised 
the  ascendency  of  his  country  to  a  point  of  pre- 
dominance of  which  modern  history  has  but  rare 
examples. 

Whether  this  result  would  have  promoted  the  cause 
of  civilisation,  or  even  the  untimate  good  of  our  own 
country,  is  a  very  different  thing.  Any  attempt  to 
crush  back  the  rival  nations  of  Europe  into  a  second- 

1  Pitt's  war  policy  had  raised  the  National  Debt  from  £70,000,000 
to  £150,000,000. 


128  CHATHAM  [chap. 

ary  rank,  to  maintain  a  permanent  and  exclusive  domi- 
nation on  the  high  seas,  must  at  last  evoke  a  combined 
resistance,  and  in  the  end  must  exhaust  an  island  of 
moderate  size.  The  morality  of  such  a  national  policy 
cannot  now  be  defended  or  excused.  All  that  can  be 
said  is  that  the  standards  of  the  eighteenth  century 
were  not  those  of  the  twentieth  century,  even  after 
all  the  debasement  these  standards  have  suffered  of 
late.  In  that  age  of  furious  colonial  rivalries,  of 
visions  of  transoceanic  dominion,  all  nations  possess- 
ing seacoasts  and  maritime  facilities  and  people,  were 
equally  eager  to  found  an  empire.  The  advantages  of 
geography,  our  national  faculties,  free  institutions,  and 
teeming  population,  enjoyed  by  Great  Britain,  secured 
her  in  the  hands  of  a  great  man  a  rapid  and  splendid 
triumph.  But  neither  the  statesmen  of  France  or 
Spain,  and  assuredly  no  prince  of  any  Hohenzollern, 
Bourbon,  or  Hapsburg  House,  could  cast  the  first  stone 
at  Pitt. 

He  has  been  charged  with  being  drunk  with  war, 
delighting  in  war  for  itself;  but  this  is  a  gross 
caricature  of  Pitt's  ambition.  Pitt  himself  saw  no 
fighting,  and  had  no  such  thirst  for  battle  as  consumed 
Alexander  or  Napoleon.  The  latter  part  of  his  life 
was  filled  with  strenuous  opposition  to  war  and  to 
exclusive  domination.  Pitt  had  no  love  of  war.  He 
loved  his  country  with  passion;  and  his  ambition 
was  to  make  his  country  the  first  in  the  world,  to 
hand  on  to  generations  to  come  a  mighty  and  stable 
inheritance.  It  was  the  ambition  of  Frederick,  of 
Marlborough,  of  Dupleix,  of  Lally,  of  Montcalm,  of 
Choiseul,  of  Alberoni,  as  it  was  of  Pitt.     But  of  them 


Til.]  FALL   FROM  POWER  129 

all,  Frederick  and  Pitt  alone  have  founded  vast 
empires  which,  after  one  hundred  and  forty  years 
of  growth,  are  still  growing  to-day. 

In  the  Annual  Register  for  1761,  Edmund  Burke 
wrote :  "  Under  him  for  the  first  time  administration 
and  popularity  were  seen  united.  .  .  .  Alone  this 
Island  seemed  to  balance  the  rest  of  Europe.  He 
revived  the  military  genius  of  our  people ;  he  supported 
our  allies ;  he  extended  our  trade ;  he  raised  our 
reputation;    he  augmented  our  dominions." 

Our  own  generation  has  so  long  forgotten  the  real 
conditions  of  1761,  and  has  so  much  overrated  the 
blundering  exploits  of  the  puny  imitators  of  Pitt, 
that  it  may  be  well  to  recall  the  famous  peroration 
of  Macaulay,  for  his  words  are  as  literally  true  as 
they  are  eloquent  and  just. 

"  The  situation  which  Pitt  occupied  at  the  close  of 
the  reign  of  George  the  Second  was  the  most  enviable 
ever  occupied  by  any  public  man  in  English  history. 
He  had  conciliated  the  King ;  he  domineered  over 
the  House  of  Commons  ;  he  was  adored  by  the  people ; 
he  was  admired  by  all  Europe.  He  was  the  first 
Englishman  of  his  time ;  and  he  had  made  England 
the  first  country  in  the  world.  The  Great  Commoner, 
the  name  by  which  he  was  often  designated,  might 
look  down  with  scorn  on  coronets  and  garters.  The 
nation  was  drunk  with  joy  and  pride.  .  .  .  Whigs 
and  Tories,  Churchmen  and  Puritans,  spoke  with 
equal  reverence  of  the  Constitution,  and  with  equal 
enthusiasm  of  the  talents,  virtues,  and  services  of  the 
Minister." 

Walpole  tells  us  that,  on  Pitt's  fall,  it  was  difficult 

K 


130  CHATHAM  [chap. 

to  say  "  which  exulted  most,  France,  Spain,  or  Bute." 
"  The  nation  was  thunderstruck,  alarmed,  and  indig- 
nant." When  Pitt  resigned  the  seals,  the  King  received 
him  graciously  and  offered  him  any  rewards  in  the 
power  of  the  Crown  to  grant.  Surprised  at  such  a 
reception,  he  burst  into  tears.  "  Pardon  me.  Sir,"  he 
said,  "  such  goodness  overpowers,  it  oppresses  me." 
With  his  excitable  temperament,  with  the  extravagant 
reverence  he  felt  for  Majesty,  the  young  George's 
manner  had  touched  a  genuine  cord  in  Pitt's  heart ; 
but  he  made  no  demand.  Bute  pressed  him  to  accept 
the  governorship  of  Canada,  with  a  salary  of  five 
thousand  pounds,  or  the  chancellorship  of  the  Duchy, 
with  its  large  salary.  Pitt  refused  these  or  any  other 
office.  Nor  would  he  accept  a  peerage.  He  agreed 
to  accept  the  title  of  Baroness  of  Chatham  for  his 
wife  and  a  pension  of  £3000  a  year  for  his  own  and 
two  lives. 

At  the  time  and  since  much  satire  has  been  heaped 
on  Pitt  for  his  deigning  to  accept  a  title  and  a  pension. 
It  was  thought  that  he  who  had  talked  so  loud  against 
the  system  of  buying  political  support,  and  about  his 
own  dependence  on  the  people,  not  on  the  Court, 
would  have  disdained  such  common  rewards.  As 
Burke  says,  "  a  torrent  of  low  and  illiberal  abuse  was 
poured  out."  His  scandalous  sister,  Anne,  maliciously 
reminded  him  that,  when  she  herself  had  obtained  a 
pension  by  truckling  to  Bute,  he  had  replied  that 
"he  grieved  to  see  the  name  of  Pitt  in  the  list  of 
pensions."  This  was  a  nasty  riposte,  but  the  pensions 
given  to  Anne  and  to  William  Pitt  had  not  been 
earned  in  exactly  the  same  way. 


vn.]  FALL  FROM  POWER  131 

The  idea  of  William  Pitt  having  ever  been  influ- 
enced by  the  pension  was  absurd,  and  his  whole  after 
life  refuted  it.  And  Burke  is  undoubtedly  right  in 
saying  that  ''it  is  a  shame  that  any  defence  should 
be  necessary."  Lord  Holderness,  a  great  peer  and  a 
nonentity,  received  on  his  retirement  from  the  same 
office  a  pension  of  £4000.  The  grant  of  a  pension  for 
public  services  on  retirement  was  in  those  days  almost 
universal ;  and  in  our  own  days  it  is  common  enough. 
Pitt  had  devoted  his  whole  life  to  the  public  service 
for  twenty-four  years,  since  he  had  been  summarily 
dismissed  from  the  army.  He  had  no  fortune,  and 
he  had  rejected  the  possible  means  of  making  a 
fortune.  He  was  married  to  a  lady  born  and  bred 
in  a  family  of  rank  and  wealth.  The  public  idea  of 
his  Roman  austerity  and  independence  was  honour- 
able to  him  —  but  to  such  a  man  as  Pitt  wildly 
chimerical.  Though  in  public  life  he  was  as  haughty 
and  as  masterful  as  Coriolanus,  he  was  by  no  means 
in  private  life  a  Cincinnatus  who  could  plough  his 
own  humble  furrow  at  home.  He  valued  what 
Disraeli  has  praised  in  the  nobles  of  our  day,  ''the 
cultured  magnificence  of  their  stately  lives."  Every- 
thing about  Pitt  was  grandiose  —  his  mansion,  his 
equipage,  his  footmen,  his  liveries,  and  his  plate.  In 
private  as  in  public  expenditure  he  was  all  through 
his  life  utterly  reckless,  and  indifferent  to  cost. 
Lavish  display  was  the  almost  universal  habit  of  all 
public  personages  in  the  eighteenth  century  not  only 
in  England,  but  throughout  Europe.  Walpole,  Chester- 
field, Newcastle,  Eox,  Temple,  Granville,  all  lived  the 
lives  of  splendid  magnates,  as  did  the  grands  seigneurs 


132  CHATHAM  [chap. 

and  prelates  of  France,  Spain,  Italy,  or  Germany. 
Frederick,  Turgot,  Washington,  Burke,  were  the  few 
exceptions.  They  were  rare  instances  of  men  in 
power  who  chose  to  live  with  great  moderation.  And 
it  is  clear  that  Pitt,  popular  tribune  as  he  claimed  to 
be,  never  aspired  to  be  one  of  those  noble  examples  of 
Spartan  simplicity  and  plain  living. 

Much  too  has  been  said  of  the  abject  servility  in  the 
language  Pitt  used  on  the  acceptance  of  his  dignities. 
He  threw  himself  "  at  the  royal  feet "  —  he  was  "  pene- 
trated with  the  bounteous  favour  of  a  most  benign 
sovereign  and  master."  He  has  not  words  to  express 
his  gratitude  for  the  "unbounded  grace  of  the  most 
benign  of  sovereigns  "  —  who  had  just  kicked  his  great 
servant  out  of  his  sight.  He  even  assures  Lord  Bute 
"  of  the  value  he  puts  on  the  favourable  sentiments  he 
had  shown,"  in  intriguing  the  dismissal.  We  do  not 
use  such  language  now.  But  it  was  the  "common 
form"  of  that  age.  Pitt's  bow  was  always  the  most 
profound  and  ceremonious  at  Court.  The  wits  said 
"you  could  see  his  hook  nose  between  his  legs."  H 
he  entered  the  Royal  closet  he  fell  on  his  knees.  The 
least  peep  into  the  closet,  said  Burke,  intoxicates  him. 
His  letters  of  ordinary  compliment  were  cast  in  that 
Ciceronian,  or  rather  Grandisonian,  solemnity  which 
was  the  keynote  of  his  written  style.  Nearly  all  the  men 
of  that  age  were  grossly  addicted  either  to  pomp  or  to 
grandiloquence :  some  to  both.  But  it  must  be  allowed 
that  Pitt  very  largely  overdid  the  practice  of  his  time. 

Macaiilay's  famous  rebuke  is  hardly  too  severe  — 
"  Pitt  was  an  almost  solitary  instance  of  a  man  of  real 
genius,  and  of  a  brave,  lofty,  and  commanding  spirit, 


vn.]  FALL  FROM  POWER  133 

without  simplicity  of  character."  Pitt  certainly  was 
not  simple,  but  it  would  be  absurd  to  say  that  one  who 
is  not  simple  cannot  be  great  or  magnanimous.  In 
the  age  of  Louis  xiv.,  of  Chesterfield,  of  Marlborough, 
the  golden  age  of  the  Dukes  and  Princes  of  Europe, 
what  was  called  "a  fine  manner"  was  not  only 
regarded  as  a  merit  in  itself,  but  was  a  real  source 
of  power  to  those  who  chose  to  use  it.  Some  really 
great  men  and  some  men  of  genius  have  deliberately 
cultivated  the  theatric  arts.  Alexander,  Napoleon, 
Elizabeth,  Richelieu,  Byron,  Chateaubriand,  Victor 
Hugo,  were  not  exactly  simple,  nor  always  natural. 
Pitt  perhaps  was  never  simple  except  with  his  children. 
But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  judge  him  by  this  some- 
what petty  foible.  It  is  a  mark  of  meanness  to  make 
too  much  fuss  about  mean  things.  Satirists  who  know 
nothing  of  Pitt's  great  achievements,  dish  up  for  us 
the  scandalous  epigrams  of  Walpole  and  Macaulay 
about  his  crutch,  his  flannels,  and  his  black  velvet 
suit.  Pitt  did  not  like  to  be  caught  in  the  grotesque 
dishabille  of  an  invalid.  Even  Julius  Csesar  liked  to 
cover  his  bald  head  with  a  wreath. 

Bute  took  care  to  have  Pitt's  honour  and  pension 
announced  in  the  Gazette  along  with  his  retirement. 
Libels,  insults,  and  merriment  poured  forth  from  his 
enemies,  but  his  friends  and  the  City  of  London  stood 
by  his  side.  The  citizens  pressed  him  to  attend  the 
Guildhall  banquet ;  and  the  restless  and  tactless 
Temple  persuaded  him  to  go  in  a  somewhat  ostenta- 
tious way  in  the  Earl's  chariot.  King  George  and  his 
young  bride  were  received  Avith  chilling  silence.  The 
fallen  minister  was  hailed  with  roars  of  delight,  which 


134  CHATHAM  [chap. 

were  resumed  in  the  Guildhall,  with  rounds  of  cheers 
led  by  Alderman  Beckford,  the  Lord  Mayor  of  1762. 
The  royal  guests  were  ignored;  riots  ensued  in  the 
streets;  gross  caricatures  were  displayed;  and  Bute 
was  only  saved  from  violence  by  being  guarded  by  a 
gang  of  hired  bruisers. 

Pitt's  conduct  after  his  fall  was  restrained  and 
magnanimous.  As  Burke  said,  "it  set  a  seal  on  his 
character."  And  Macaulay  declares  that  his  genius 
and  virtue  never  shone  so  brightly  as  during  the 
session  of  1762.  He  forbore  to  attack  the  colleagues 
who  had  ejected  him.  He  even  supported  them.  He 
avoided  any  claim  to  exclusive  merit  in  all  the  suc- 
cesses past.  When  the  government  was  forced  into 
war  with  Spain,  he  disclaimed  any  triumph.  He 
urged  unanimity.  "  The  moment  was  come  for  every 
man  to  show  himself  for  the  whole.  Be  one  people ! 
Forget  everything  but  the  public !  —  for  the  public  I 
forget  both  my  wrongs  and  my  infirmities."  He  pro- 
tested against  abandoning  the  King  of  Prussia.  "  If 
our  troops  were  recalled  from  Germany,  he  himself 
would  be  robbed  of  his  honour,  as  the  fear  of  it  had 
already  robbed  him  of  his  sleep.  If  we  abandoned 
our  allies,  God  would  abandon  us."  "America  had 
been  conquered  in  Germany"  "  Prince  Ferdinand  had 
been  the  saviour  of  Europe,  and  had  shattered  the 
whole  military  power  of  that  military  monarchy, 
France.  If  every  other  man  in  the  House  should  be 
against  the  German  war,  he  would  stand  single,  and 
undergo  the  shame."  Such  was  the  passion  that 
Pitt  threw  into  the  cause  of  aiding  the  newly  formed 
kingdom  of  Prussia. 


vn.]  FALL  FROM  POWER  135 

And  now  Pitt's  anticipations  were  verified.  Spain 
having  got  the  treasure-ships  safe  into  Cadiz  changed 
her  tone,  haughtily  refused  to  divulge  the  "  Family 
Compact,"  recalled  her  ambassador  and  opened  war. 
France  and  Spain  in  concert  invaded  Portugal,  our 
ally.  The  last  dispatch  of  the  Spanish  ambassador 
is  described  by  Pitt's  biographer  as  "his  Catholic 
Majesty's  declaration  of  war  against  the  person  of 
William  Pitt."  It  is  indeed  a  singular  document. 
The  war  in  which  Spain  and  England  were  about  to 
be  plunged,  it  said,  was  to  be  charged  "  only  to  the 
pride  and  to  the  unmeasurable  (sic)  ambition  "  of  the 
man  —  who  had  ceased  to  hold  office  for  three  months. 
His  Spanish  Majesty  complained  "  of  the  insulting 
manner  in  which  all  the  affairs  of  Spain  had  been 
treated  during  Mr.  Pitt's  administration."  As  will 
be  seen,  Pitt  had  been  for  three  or  four  months  utterly 
powerless  in  the  Council  and  Parliament  of  George  iii., 
—  who  was  himself  bent  on  peace,  who  had  dismissed 
Pitt  rather  than  enter  into  war. 

War  with  Spain  was  declared  on  4th  January  1762. 
Although  the  ministry  had  been  forced  into  it  against 
their  wish,  and  maintained  it  with  half  a  heart,  the 
spirit  that  Pitt  had  infused  into  the  army  and  the 
navy,  and  the  designs  he  had  prepared,  brought  it  to 
so  triumphant  a  success  that  we  are  told  the  glorious 
campaign  of  1762  was  only  inferior  to  that  of  1759. 
Martinique  and  the  French  islands  of  Grenada,  St. 
Lucia,  and  St.  Vincent  in  the  West  Indies  were 
captured.  After  a  severe  resistance,  Havannah,  the 
key  of  Cuba,  was  taken ;  and  in  the  East  the  settlement 
of  Manila  and  the  Philippines.      Five  thousand  men 


136  CHATHAM  [chap. 

and  a  fleet  were  sent  to  defend  Portugal.  The  caustic 
wit  of  Walpole  put  the  public  effervescence  in  an 
epigram.  The  eloquence  of  Pitt,  he  wrote,  shines 
months  after  it  has  set,  like  an  annihilated  star.  "  I 
tell  you  it  has  conquered  Martinico.  There  is  more 
martial  spirit  in  the  Gazette  than  in  half  Thucydides. 
The  Romans  were  three  hundred  years  in  conquering 
the  world.  We  subdue  the  globe  in  three  campaigns 
—  and  a  globe  as  big  again."  Sir  R.  Lyttelton  at 
Rome  wrote  that  these  successes  astonished  all  Europe. 
The  Pope  told  an  English  gentleman  that  so  great  was 
the  national  glory,  "that  he  esteemed  it  the  highest 
honour  to  be  born  an  Englishman."  His  Holiness 
apparently  was  out  of  temper  with  his  Catholic 
Majesty. 

France  and  Spain  were  now  both  ready  for  peace  — 
almost  as  ready  as  were  King  George  and  Bute. 
England  had  neither  been  intimidated  nor  injured  by 
the  "  Family  Compact."  ^  In  truth,  the  three  nations 
as  well  as  their  governments  and  sovereigns  desired 
rest.  And  the  King  of  Sardinia  practically  acted  as 
mediator  in  the  complicated  settlement.  The  terms 
were  these :  — 

(1)  France  surrendered  to  England  the  island  of 
Minorca ;  in  Africa,  Senegal ;  in  America,  the  islands 
of  Cape  Breton,  St.  John,  and  all  Canada;  in  the 
West  Indies,  Grenada,  Dominica,  St.  Vincent,  and 
Tobago.    She  evacuated  the  conquests  made  on  Prussian 


1  "  The  nation  which  won  in  this  war  was  that  which  had  used  its 
sea-power  in  peace  to  increase  its  wealth,  and  in  war  to  enlarge  its 
empire  by  the  number  of  its  seamen  and  the  extent  of  its  seaboard 
and  base  "  (Mahan,  Sea-Power,  p.  328). 


vn.]  FALL  FROM  POWER  137 

territory,  and  restored  those  in  Hanover,  Hesse,  and 
Brunswick.  She  agreed  to  reduce  the  new  defences 
of  Dunkirk. 

(2)  On  her  side,  England  restored  to  France  the 
island  of  Belle  Isle ;  in  India,  Pondicherry  and  recent 
conquests,  but  without  forts  ;  in  Africa,  Goree ;  in  the 
West  Indies,  the  islands  of  Martinique,  Guadaloupe, 
Marie  Galante,  and  St.  Lucia.  The  French  right  of 
fishery  in  Newfoundland  was  confirmed  as  in  the  old 
treaties  ;  and  the  small  islands  adjoining,  of  St.  Pierre 
and  Miquelon,  were  ceded  to  their  fishermen  to  cure 
their  fish.  France  and  England  mutually  agreed  to 
withdraw  their  troops  from  Germany.  Frederick  was 
left  to  fight  it  out  with  Russia  and  Austria. 

(3)  On  her  side,  Spain  restored  to  Portugal  all  that 
she  had  recently  taken.  She  ceded  to  England  the 
province  of  Florida;  and  in  exchange  received  the 
restoration  of  Havannah  and  of  the  Philippines.  She 
ceded  the  right  to  cut  timber  in  Honduras,  and  with- 
drew the  truly  preposterous  claim  she  had  set  up  to 
rights  of  fishery  in  Newfoundland  —  a  claim  which 
Pitt,  in  his  tragedy-king  vein,  said  he  would  only 
acknowledge  when  the  King  of  Spain  had  stormed  the 
Tower  of  London. 

This  famous  Treaty  of  Paris  of  1763  was  on  the 
whole  a  gain  to  all  the  countries  involved,  and  in  its 
general  lines  secured  a  long  period  of  peace.  It  was 
somewhat  less  favourable  to  England  than  the  terms 
which  Pitt  had  demanded,  and  certainly  much  less 
than  those  he  would  have  demanded  after  the  conquests 
of  1762.  In  three  points,  Pitt  would  have  exacted 
higher  terms.     He  would  have  retained  the  West 


138  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Indian  Islands ;  he  would  have  rejected  the  Newfound- 
land fishery  claims  of  France  as  well  as  of  Spain ;  he 
would  not  have  abandoned  Prussia.  As  to  Spain, 
which  practically  ceded  little  after  a  disastrous  war, 
Pitt  would  have  held  on  to  Cuba  and  the  Philippines, 
which  Spain  has  only  lost  in  our  own  day.  And  it  is 
significant  that  the  fishery  problem  was  still  in  debate 
with  France  after  one  hundred  and  forty  years.  Lord 
Chesterfield,  in  many  ways  the  keenest  and  coolest 
brain  of  the  age,  said  at  the  time  that  the  fishery 
dispute  would  go  on  just  as  it  did  before  and  had  done 
since  1713. 

At  the  bar  of  humanity  and  civilisation  it  must  be 
judged  that  the  Peace  was  salutary  and  just.  But  we 
can  understand  the  feelings  of  Pitt  and  those  whom 
he  inspired,  that  much  which  had  been  won  by  lavish 
sacrifice  of  blood  and  treasure  was  being  flung  away  in 
the  inglorious  haste  of  the  King  and  his  creatures  to 
obtain  a  free  hand  at  home,  and  to  establish  a  personal 
government  of  the  Crown.  Had  Pitt  retained  his 
mastery  of  the  state  in  1761  and  1762,  it  is  probable 
that  he  would  have  swept  into  the  Empire  all  the 
colonies  of  France  and  Spain  both  in  the  East  and 
in  the  West;  and  would  have  established  a  maritime 
tyranny  against  which  the  whole  of  Europe  would 
have  risen  in  just  indignation.  The  narrowness  rather 
than  the  humanity  of  George  iii.,  and  the  weakness 
rather  than  the  wisdom  of  his  ministers,  saved  Europe 
from  this  misfortune  and  England  from  this  career  of 
arrogant  aggrandisement. 

When  the  Peace  came  to  be  considered  in  Parlia- 
ment, great  anxiety  existed  in  the  government ;  for  in 


VII.]  FALL  FROM  POWER  139 

the  trading  classes  and  in  London  its  terms  "were 
thought  to  be  inadequate,  and  the  opposition  of  Pitt, 
whom  Chesterfield  called  ipse  agmen,  might  undo  the 
work  of  months  of  negotiation.  Fox  had  been  pro- 
moted to  lead  the  House  of  Commons,  as  the  Hector 
who  alone  could  meet  Achilles  in  the  open.  Vast  sums 
were  spent  in  buying  the  votes  of  members,  and  all 
who  opposed  the  Court  and  Ministers  were  dismissed 
from  office  by  a  monstrous  wholesale  proscription  rang- 
ing from  dukes  to  office-porters.  A  venal  or  terrorised 
majority  was  first  secured.  The  debate  opened,  and 
Pitt  was  said  to  be  confined  to  his  room  with  a  severe 
attack  of  gout.  But  now  the  House  was  alarmed  by  a 
loud  shouting  without.  The  doors  opened,  and  at  the 
head  of  a  concourse  of  his  friends  was  seen  Mr.  Pitt, 
borne  in  the  arms  of  his  servants,  who  set  him  down 
within  the  bar,  and  with  the  help  of  his  crutch  and 
some  friendly  hands  he  crawled  to  his  seat.  He  was 
dressed  in  black  velvet,  his  legs  wrapped  in  flannel, 
buskins  of  black  cloth  on  his  feet,  and  thick  gloves  on 
his  hands.  His  face  was  emaciated,  and  he  had  the 
air  of  intense  suffering.  His  voice  was  low,  and  from 
time  to  time  he  obtained  the  rare  privilege  of  resuming 
his  seat,  whilst  continuing  to  speak.  His  speech  held 
the  House  for  three  hours  and  a  half.  In  effect,  he 
spoke  thus :  — 

"  He  said  that,  though  suffering  excruciating  torture,  he 
came  at  the  hazard  of  his  life  to  raise  his  voice  against  a  treaty 
■which  obscured  all  the  glories  of  the  war,  surrendered  the 
dearest  interests  of  the  nation,  and  sacrificed  tlie  public  faith 
by  an  abandonment  of  our  allies.  He  began  with  the  Fisheries 
in  Newfoundland  and  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  concession  to 
France  would  enable  her  to  recover  her  marine  and  to  regain 


140  CHATHAM  [chap. 

her  sea-power.  He  would,  if  he  could,  have  insisted  on  the 
entire  and  exclusive  fishery  for  our  country.  Havannah  was 
an  important  conquest.  He  would  have  made  it  earlier  had 
he  been  allowed  to  act.  With  Havannah  ours,  all  the  Spanish 
treasures  in  America  lay  at  our  mercy.  The  acquisition  of 
Florida  was  no  equivalent  for  the  cession  of  Cuba.  He  would 
have  kept  Guadaloupe,  had  he  been  free.  But  now  they  cede 
not  only  Guadaloupe,  but  Martinique  also,  nay  St.  Lucia,  the 
only  valuable  one  of  the  neutral  islands.  Why  did  they 
conquer  Martinique  if  they  meant  to  restore  it  ?  They  '  had 
lost  sight  of  the  great  fundamental  principle  that  France  is 
chiefly,  if  not  solely,  to  be  dreaded  by  us  in  the  light  of  a 
maritime  and  commercial  power.'  The  Fisheries  and  the 
West  India  Islands  will  one  day  enable  her  to  become  for- 
midable to  us  at  sea.  If  Britain  retained  the  exclusive  trade 
with  the  West  Indies,  with  Africa,  with  India,  she  would  gain 
immensely  in  wealth  and  in  command  of  the  seas.  This 
they  were  handing  over  to  France.  As  to  Germany,  it  was 
the  employment  of  the  French  army  there  which  had  enabled 
us  to  make  our  conquests  in  America.  The  gallant  King  of 
Prussia  was  fighting  in  the  same  cause  as  ourselves,  and  is 
suffering  for  us.  There  were  now  new  powers  in  Europe. 
Holland  and  Sweden  had  declined,  and  Russia  '  had  started 
up  in  its  own  orbit  extrinsically  of  all  other  systems;  but 
gravitating  to  each  according  to  the  mass  of  attracting  in- 
terests it  contains.'  (Surely  a  marvellous  bit  of  insight  in 
1762  I)  '  Another  power,  against  all  human  expectation,  was 
raised  in  Europe  in  the  House  of  Brandenburgh.'  (Surely, 
insight  no  less  remarkable !)  '  The  balance  of  power  in  Eu- 
rope has  been  entirely  altered.'  '  The  German  war  prevented 
the  French  from  succouring  her  colonies  and  islands  in 
America,  in  Asia,  and  in  Africa.  Our  successes  were  uniform 
because  our  measures  were  vigorous.'  The  French  marine  in- 
deed was  ruined  —  they  had  not  ten  ships  of  the  line  fit  for 
service — but  there  was  Spain  who  had  joined  France,  and 
there  were  Swedes,  Genoese,  Dutch,  from  whom  France  might 
hire  ships.  As  to  the  desertion  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  it '  was 
insidious,  tricking,  base,  and  treacherous.'  The  Treaty  had  in 
it  the  seeds  of  future  war.  It  restored  the  enemy  to  his  former 
greatness.     The  gains  were  no  equivalent  to  the  surrender," 


i 


VII.]  FALL   FROM   POWER  141 

Such  was  the  tremendous  delenda  est  Carthago  of  the 
British  Cato:  a  policy,  clear,  practicable,  almost 
achieved,  and  which  Pitt  might  have  accomplished  had 
circumstances  permitted  —  for  a  time  at  least.^  It  was 
an  appeal  to  systematise  the  exclusive  trade  monopolies 
in  favour  in  that  age.  The  fisheries  of  North  America, 
the  sugar,  cotton,  and  products  of  the  West  Indies,  the 
rich  and  varied  trade  of  India,  the  slave  markets  of 
Africa,  were  all  at  our  mercy.  France  and  Spain  had 
settlements  in  all  four  of  these  lands  ;  but  the  absolute 
mistress  of  the  seas  could  tear  them  away,  and  could 
hold  them  against  the  world.  Once  having  all  the 
important  transmarine  colonies  in  her  hands,  she  must, 
and  she  could,  establish  with  them  a  strict  monopoly 
of  trade.  The  scheme  was  grand,  or  rather  grandiose, 
as  was  everything  of  Pitt's.  It  was  in  strict  accord 
with  the  economics  of  that  age.  Nor  was  it  contrary 
to  the  morality  of  the  age.  It  was  not  until  fourteen 
years  later  that  Adam  Smith  dispelled  this  dismal 
illusion,  when  he  wrote  :  — 

"...  To  found  a  great  empire  for  the  sole  purpose  of  rais- 
ing up  a  people  of  customers,  may  at  first  sight  appear  a 
project  fit  only  for  a  nation  of  shopkeepers.  It  is,  however, 
a  project  altogether  unfit  for  a  nation  of  shopkeepers ;  but 
extremely  fit  for  a  nation  whose  government  is  influenced  by 
shopkeepers.  Such  statesmen,  and  such  statesmen  only,  are 
capable  of  fancying  that  they  tvill  find  some  advantage  in  em- 
ploying the  blood  and  treasure  of  their  fellow-citizens,  to  found 
and  maintain  such  an  empire." 

Pitt,  alas  !  was  such  a  statesman.     His  was  a  govern- 

1  Captain  Mahan  has  clearly  shown  that  France  lost  India  and 
Canada  because  she  could  not  act  at  a  distance  by  sea.  And  Britain 
lost  her  American  Colonies  from  the  same  failure  in  1781. 


142  CHATHAM  [chap.  vii. 

ment  deeply  influenced  by  the  shopkeepers  of  London 
and  Bristol.  Fallacies  die  hard !  And  even  in  our 
own  day  we  have  seen  shopkeepers  masquerading  as 
statesmen,  or  statesmen  cajoling  the  shopkeepers,  who 
are  willing  to  employ  the  blood  and  treasure  of  their 
fellow-citizens  in  founding  an  empire  on  the  anti- 
quated sophism  of  patriotic  trade  under  the  national 
flag. 

Pitt's  grand  schemes  were  defeated  by  the  thirst  of 
power  in  the  young  King  and  the  venal  arts  of  Bute 
and  Fox  ;  and  it  is  well  for  us  that  they  were  defeated, 
vile  as  were  the  means  and  contemptible  as  were  his 
rivals.  The  agony  and  exhaustion  of  the  great  orator 
were  such  that  he  left  the  House  at  once  without 
voting,  and  was  welcomed  outside  with  a  roar  of 
applause.  Three  hundred  and  nineteen  members  voted 
for  the  Peace.  Sixty -five,  on  the  other  side,  said  Wal- 
pole,  "  were  not  bribed."  "Now,"  said  the  Princess  of 
Wales,   "  my  son  is  King  of  England." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IN    OPPOSITION 

The  conduct  of  the  "  Great  Commoner  "  after  his  dis- 
missal was  what  we  now  call  non-benevolent  neutrality. 
He  made  no  attempt  to  form  a  party,  to  overturn  the 
ministry,  or  to  return  to  power.  He  was  independent, 
critical,  at  times  their  friend,  their  candid  protector, 
but  always  with  a  grand  air  of  superior  wisdom.  Nor 
can  we  deny  that  he  showed  a  superior  wisdom,  and  a 
nature  above  that  of  the  feeble  and  selfish  jobbers  who 
had  displaced  him.  Bute  was  so  intensely  unpopular 
that  he  was  not  safe  in  the  streets,  and  had  not  a 
friend  outside  his  own  creatures.  The  English  public 
stormed  at  everything  Scotch,  and  insulted  every  Scot. 
On  his  side  Pitt  abstained  from  attacking  Bute,  and 
publicly  proclaimed  his  esteem  for  North  Britain. 
When  his  brother-in-law  and  old  colleague,  George 
Grenville,  deserted  him,  and  was  promoted  to  lead  the 
House  of  Commons,  Pitt  bantered  him  with  his  con- 
tempt rather  than  crushed  him  with  his  indignation. 
When  Pitt  was  invited  to  join  a  new  ministry  again, 
he  showed  no  desire  to  do  so.  And  even  when  the 
King  in  his  bewilderment  was  willing  to  treat  with 
his  rejected  servant,  Pitt  refused  to  have  anything  to 

143 


144  CHATHAM  [chap. 

do  with  government,  unless  he  could  form  a  ministry 
on  his  own  terms  by  his  own  choice. 

All  this  time  Pitt  was  wont  to  treat  his  opponents 
with  an  air  of  amused  contempt,  and  the  House  of 
Commons  as  a  body  to  be  rebuked  rather  than  con- 
vinced. He  was  now  the  object  of  virulent  abuse  and 
savage  lampoons,  inspired  and  paid  for  by  his  rivals 
and  the  Court.  He  made  no  reply  in  public  or  in 
private.  In  the  House,  an  Irish  free-lance,  Colonel 
Barre,  instigated,  says  Walpole,  by  Bute  and  Fox, 
made  a  furious  attack  on  Pitt,  calling  him  "  a  pro- 
fligate minister,  who  had  thrust  himself  into  power  on 
the  shoulders  of  the  mob."  In  the  next  debate,  Barre 
renewed  his  philippic,  and  was  openly  supported  by 
Fox.  Pitt  made  no  reply.  "  The  indignation  of  the 
House,"  says  Walpole,  "  showed  that  such  savage  war 
was  detested."  "  Barre  was  abhorred  as  a  barbarian 
irregular,  and  Fox,  who  had  lent  such  kind  'assistance 
to  a  ruflfi.an,  drew  the  chief  odium  on  himself."  In  the 
debate  on  the  Peace,  Pitt  studiously  avoided  replying 
to  Grenville.  But  when,  on  the  Budget  proposals, 
Grenville,  in  his  languid,  querulous  tone,  asked  the 
opposition  to  tell  him  "  where  the  money  could  be  got," 
Pitt,  mimicking  his  accent,  repeated  the  words  of  a 
popular  song — Gentle  Shepherd,  tell  me  where  !  Gren- 
ville was  furious  —  but  Pitt  rose,  bowed,  and  went  out. 
Grenville  never  lost  the  nickname  of  the  "  Gentle 
Shepherd." 

Bute  soon  proved  himself  to  be  incompetent,  un- 
scrupulous, and  shameless.  When  he  called  in  Fox, 
with  promise  of  a  peerage,  to  pull  the  Peace  through 
Parliament,  he  sanctioned  the  most  monstrous  system 


VIII.]  IN  OPPOSITION  146 

of  corruption  and  of  intimidation  ever  known  even 
in  that  century  of  bribery  and  outrage.  He  made  a 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  of  Sir  Francis  Dashwood, 
an  ignorant  debauche,  who  had  once  been  a  Jacobite. 
When  this  besotted  junto  proposed  an  excise  on  cider, 
with  a  right  of  search,  to  be  paid  by  the  grower,  the 
public  wrath  was  as  great  as  when  Walpole  almost 
ruined  himself  by  his  Bill  for  an  Excise.  Pitt  again 
thundered  against  Excise  in  his  old  strain.  "Every 
man's  house  was  his  castle."  "  Excise  was  odious  and 
grievous  to  the  dealer,  but  intolerable  to  the  private 
person,  whose  house  was  to  be  invaded  by  the 
gangers."  Pitt  might  thunder,  but  he  was  powerless. 
Parliament  voted  the  tax  by  overwhelming  majorities. 
And  Johnson,  as  we  know,  in  his  Dictionary  defined 
Excise  as  ''a  hateful  tax  levied  upon  commodities  and 
adjudged,  not  by  the  common  judges  of  property,  but 
wretches  hired  by  those  to  whom  excise  was  paid." 
Pitt  was  not  the  only  man  in  the  eighteenth  century 
who  used  violent  phrases. 

Violent  language  was  now  the  order  of  the  day,  and 
no  man  used  language  so  violent  and  coarse  as  the 
profligate  and  scurrilous  wit,  John  Wilkes,  member 
for  Aylesbury,  Colonel  of  the  Bucks  Militia,  whose 
escapades  were  destined  to  throw  into  confusion  for 
many  long  years,  governments,  parties,  and  the  Court. 
Wilkes,  a  man  ruined  and  infamous,  but  still  popular 
in  many  brilliant  circles,  had  founded  the  NoHh  Briton, 
wherein  he  criticised  by  name  public  persons  with  an 
audacity  and  insolence  that  were  unknown  even  in 
that  age.  In  Number  45,  after  exhausting  the 
language   of   insult  to    the  Scots    and   the   Scottish 


146  CHATHAM  [chap. 

minister,  Wilkes  attacked  the  King's  speech,  and 
lamented  that  the  Sovereign's  name  should  give 
sanction  "to  the  most  odious  measures,"  "most  un- 
justifiable doctrines,"  and  "infamous  fallacy,"  and  so 
forth,  in  a  strain  in  which  ministers  were  often  assailed 
in  those  days  —  and  indeed  in  our  own.  Walpole  said 
"  nothing  could  be  more  just  than  the  satire."  The 
government  committed  the  folly  of  seizing  Wilkes, 
searching  his  house  and  papers,  under  a  general  {i.e.  an 
open)  warrant  without  name,  and  committed  him  to 
the  Tower.  The  defeat  of  "general  warrants"  in 
the  courts  of  law,  the  triumph  of  Wilkes,  and  the 
blundering  illegalities  committed  by  the  ministers  at 
the  King's  desire,  form  a  memorable  chapter  in  the 
history  of  Parliament  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Consti- 
tution, and  need  not  be  here  rehearsed. 

When  the  matter  came  before  Parliament,  Pitt 
made  an  admirable  speech,  defending  the  great  con- 
stitutional principles  with  weighty  good  sense,  and 
lucidly  expounding  the  legal  grounds  on  which  they 
rest.     Eacked  as  he  was  with  gout,  he  said :  — 

"  The  surrender  of  the  privileges  of  a  member  was  danger- 
ous to  the  freedom  of  Parliament,  and  an  infringement  on  the 
rights  of  the  people.  It  put  every  member  who  did  not  vote 
with  the  minister  under  a  perpetual  terror  of  imprisonment. 
If  a  member  committed  a  crime,  Parliament  would  not  shield 
him;  but  Parliament  had  no  right  to  vote  away  its  privileges. 
The  paper  no  doubt  was  a  libel  —  he  entirely  agreed.  He  con- 
demned the  whole  series  of  the  '■North  Britons' ;  he  called 
them  illiberal,  unmanly,  and  detestable.  He  abhorred  all 
reflections  of  a  nation.  The  King's  subjects  were  one  people. 
Whoever  divided  them  was  guilty  of  sedition.  The  author, 
it  was  true,  was  the  blasphemer  of  his  God,  and  the  libeller  of 
his  King.     The  dignity  and  the  honour  of  Parliament  had 


VIII.]  IN  OPPOSITION  147 

been  called  upon  to  support  and  protect  the  purity  of  his 
Majesty's  character ;  and  this  they  had  done,  by  a  strong  and 
decisive  condemnation  of  the  libel.  But  having  done  this,  it 
was  neither  consistent  with  the  honour  and  safety  of  Parlia- 
ment, nor  with  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  people,  to 
go  one  step  farther.  The  rest  belonged  to  the  Coui-ts 
below." 

Wilkes  escaped  to  France,  and  in  the  next  year  he 
was  expelled  from  the  House  by  what  was  afterwards 
admitted  to  be  an  act  ultra  vires.  In  the  debate  on  the 
legality  of  "  general  warrants,"  Pitt  again  spoke  with 
excellent  sense  and  justice.  He  challenged  ministers 
to  defend  the  legality  of  such  warrants.  To  argue 
that  they  had  been  issued  by  other  governments  was 
no  justification.  It  was  true  that  two  such  warrants 
had  been  issued  by  himself.  But  they  were  not 
against  libels.  Both  were  for  the  seizure  of  foreigners 
about  to  leave  the  country.  Both  were  issued  in  a 
time  of  war  to  apprehend  enemies.  He  had  been 
advised  by  the  Attorney-General  that  the  warrant  was 
illegal,  and  that  he  must  take  the  consequences.  He 
deliberately  faced  the  risk,  and,  for  the  public. safety, 
he  seized  a  suspicious  foreigner  who  was  in  hiding.  In 
the  present  case,  there  was  no  urgency  or  necessity. 
The  safety  of  the  state  was  in  no  danger.  Parliament 
had  voted  away  its  own  piivilege  and  laid  the  personal 
freedom  of  every  representative  of  the  people  at  the 
mercy  of  the  Attorney-General.  The  wanton  exercise 
of  an  illegal  power  admits  of  no  justification  or  even 
palliation.  In  the  present  case  it  is  personal  resent- 
ment against  a  particular  person.  If  the  House  sup- 
ported these  general  warrants,  they  would  be  the 
disgrace  of   the   present   age   and   the    reproach    of 


148  CHATHAM  [chap. 

posterity.  All  this  is  now  the  unquestioned  law  of  the 
Constitution. 

In  April  1763  Lord  Bute  astonished  the  world  by 
sudden  resignation  of  office.  He  had  obtained  every- 
thing he  could  hope  to  gain,  and  he  shrank  from  the 
difficulties  and  the  hatred  with  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded. He  no  doubt  fully  counted  on  retaining 
power  as  royal  Favourite,  even  if  he  publicly  withdrew 
from  office.  He  was  succeeded  by  George  Grenville, 
who,  with  sterling  qualities  of  honesty,  courage,  and 
industry,  had  a  singular  gift  of  annoying  the  King  and 
of  blundering  into  dangerous  crises.  The  ministry  of 
Grenville,  however,  was  as  unstable  and  as  unpopular 
as  that  of  Bute,  whilst  it  showed  no  willingness  to 
submit  to  the  voice  that  whispered  behind  the  throne. 
Before  five  months  had  passed,  the  Favourite  sought  an 
interview  with  Pitt  himself  and  suggested  his  laying  his 
views  before  the  King.  Next  day  Pitt  was  summoned 
to  the  King's  closet.  The  interview  was  outrageously 
irregular  and  indecent.  At  the  instigation  of  the  late 
Prime  Minister,  who  had  resigned  office  five  months 
previously,  and  unbeknoimi  to  the  actual  ministers  for  the 
time  being,  King  George  held  a  long  private  interview 
with  the  former  Prime  Minister,  whom  he  himself  had 
dismissed  less  than  two  years  before.  And  this  took 
place  at  Buckingham  House,  and  not  at  Versailles  or 
Potsdam. 

The  King  told  Pitt  that  he  thought  his  present 
ministers  could  not  stand ;  and  he  practically  invited 
Pitt  to  suggest  what  ministry  he  would  himself  pro- 
pose in  their  place.  Pitt  discussed  the  question  in 
great  detail,  and  evidently  proposed  a  coalition  with 


VIII.]  IN  OPPOSITION  149 

jSTewcastle,  Devonshire,  Rockingham,  Temple,  and 
Hardwicke.  In  the  first  interview,  the  King  seemed 
inclined  to  accept  the  combination.  But  reflection 
soon  opened  his  eyes,  and  probably  those  of  the 
Favourite,  that  what  Pitt  intended  was  a  strong 
government  of  which  he  should  be  the  master  spirit. 
The  negotiation  was  at  once  broken  off.  The  King 
was  resolved  to  be  master :  and  Pitt  was  resolved  not 
to  be  a  tool.  Throughout  the  negotiation  Pitt  had 
treated  the  King  with  grand  deference;  but  frankly 
told  him  with  whom  he  would  serve,  and  with  whom 
he  vrould  not  serve.  The  King  on  his  part  was 
obstinate  and  prejudiced  for  and  against  persons,  and 
wanted  to  form  Pitt's  ministry  himself.  On  the 
rupture,  he  went  about  in  his  garrulous,  mischief- 
making,  self-sufficient  way,  throwing  the  failure  on 
Pitt,  and  publicly  naming  the  men  in  whom  Pitt  had 
expressed  want  of  confidence.  The  shrewd  Chester- 
field as  usual  summed  up  the  whole  situation  in  a 
phrase  —  "the  one  asked  too  much,  and  the  other 
would  not  yield  enough."  Neither  Pitt,  nor  George, 
was  much  given  to  yield —  the  one  because  he  was  too 
great,  the  other  because  he  was  too  little,  to  take 
counsel  of  any  one  out  himself. 

Before  we  pass  to  the  disasters  and  criminal  blunders 
of  the  Grenville  ministry,  "the  worst  administration 
since  the  Revolution,"  as  Macaulay  says,  and  to  the 
rickety  ministry  of  the  respectable  Rockingham,  who 
succeeded  Grenville,  it  will  be  well  to  collect  all  the 
abortive  attempts  made  to  bring  Pitt  into  office  until 
he  formed  his  second  administration.  The  "  cousin- 
hood  "  had  long  been  broken  up,  and  Lord  Temple 


150  CHATHAM  [chap. 

alone  remained  at  Pitt's  side.  They  also  had  begun 
to  differ  on  many  things,  as  about  Wilkes.  Without 
family  influence,  without  a  party,  without  regular 
followers  in  either  house ;  a  Whig  by  principle,  but 
not  a  sworn  partisan  of  that  faction;  a  believer  in 
personal  government  and  a  sentimental  royalist,  but 
yet  not  a  Tory ;  a  passionate  stickler  for  the  Constitu- 
tion as  settled  in  1689  and  for  the  sacred  right  of 
popular  representation  — Pitt,  by  the  ascendency  of  his 
genius  and  character,  seemed  to  make  every  govern- 
ment from  which  he  was  excluded  a  temporary  ex- 
pedient; and  yet  he  had  neither  the  desire  nor  the 
means  to  form  a  government  of  his  own. 

The  King  soon  began  to  hate  George  Grenville  as 
minister  even  more  than  Pitt ;  but  after  the  failure  of 
the  negotiation  with  Pitt,  he  was  forced  to  take  Gren- 
ville back,  with  the  Duke  of  Bedford  as  a  sort  of 
buffer.  George  then  called  in  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  to  his  aid.  The  Duke  made  fresh  over- 
tures to  Pitt,  actually  going  down  to  Hayes  to  see  the 
invalid  in  his  sick-room.  Pitt  was  prepared  to  form  a 
ministry,  "  if  he  could  carry  the  constitution  with  him.''  By 
this  he  seems  to  have  meant  that  the  illegal  doings 
and  the  proscriptions  of  Bute  and  Grenville  should  be 
reversed,  the  obnoxious  taxes  repealed,  and  no  influ- 
ence behind  the  throne  suffered  to  interfere.  Temple 
and  Pitt  were  told  that  the  King  would  insist  on 
certain  nominations  to  office ;  and  thereupon,  though 
Pitt  seemed  willing  to  yield.  Temple  peremptorily 
refused,  and  pursuaded  Pitt  to  do  the  same.  The 
great  rupture  between  Pitt  and  Temple  had  not  yet 
come.     Their  close  alliance  in  family  and  in  politics 


vin.]  IN  OPPOSITION  151 

had  lasted  for  twenty  years,  and  Temple  was  now  the 
last  remaining  colleague  that  Pitt  retained.  Pitt,  we 
are  told,  in  his  grand  way,  repeated  the  verses  Anna 
uttered  to  Dido  when  she  discovered  the  rash  act :  — 

"Exstinxti  me  teque,  soror,  populumque  patresque 
Sidonios,  urbemque  tuam." 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  condemn  Pitt  for  refusing 
office  on  this  occasion,  and  to  ascribe  it  to  his  weakness 
in  yielding  his  better  judgment  "to  his  evil  genius, 
Temple."  This  is  not  quite  so  clear.  The  motives 
that  swayed  the  harassed  mind  of  the  tortured  proud 
man  in  the  retirement  of  his  chamber  are  even  now  far 
from  plain.  But  if  Pitt  had  reason  to  believe  that  the 
King  and  Bute,  with  their  confederates,  were  still 
strong  enough  to  tie  his  hands,  he  may  have  been 
right  in  refusing  to  help. 

The  King  found  Grenville  intolerable,  and  struggled 
to  discover  a  substitute  to  replace  him.  The  great 
Whig  nobles  were  hardly  more  tolerable,  and  one  after 
another  they  caused  a  ministerial  crisis  by  their  un- 
popularity or  by  their  exacting  terms.  No  minister 
would  satisfy  King  George,  except  one  who  would  do 
the  King's  work  by  corruption  or  by  illegalities.  At 
each  crisis  he  was  forced  to  call  back  the  capable  and 
resolute  man  whom  he  personally  hated.  "  I  would 
sooner  meet  Mr.  Grenville  at  the  point  of  my  sword 
than  let  him  into  my  Cabinet,"  said  George  in  his 
despair.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  read  the  King  a  written 
lecture  on  his  conduct  so  severe  that  George  said  if  he 
had  not  broken  out  into  a  sweat  he  would  have  been 
suffocated  with  indignation.  Again  he  got  his  uncle 
Cumberland  to  confer  with  Pitt.     And  again^  we  are 


152  CHATHAM  [chap. 

told,  Pitt  refused  at  the  instigation  of  "  his  evil  genius," 
Temple.  At  last,  after  endless  negotiations,  offers,  and 
refusals,  the  Marquis  of  Eockingham,  in  July  1765, 
formed  an  administration. 

Lord  Eockingham  was  a  young,  inexperienced, 
honest  nonentity,  of  great  position  and  blameless  char- 
acter, who  had  nothing  to  recommend  him  but  rank, 
his  good  intentions,  and  the  genius  of  Edmund  Burke, 
his  private  secretary  and  real  leader.  The  ministry  he 
got  together  with  prolonged  effort  was  mainly  drawn 
from  the  Whig  magnates,  including  the  veteran  jobber 
Newcastle,  one  or  two  honourable  and  competent  men, 
Townshend,  an  erratic  meteor,  and  some  of  the  old 
Court  gang.  Eockingham  made  every  effort  to  per- 
suade Pitt  to  join  him  ;  he  had  visited  him  in  his  sick- 
room at  Hayes  ;  he  asked  his  advice  before  he  made  a 
plan ;  he  solicited  his  help  on  three  separate  occasions  ; 
he  invited  Pitt's  friends  to  take  office.  He  seemed  to 
offer  Pitt  not  only  office  but  the  leadership  of  the  whole 
party  and  government. 

All  this  Pitt  declined.  Lord  Hardwicke  said,  Pitt 
would  "  neither  lead  nor  be  driven."  Burke  put  down 
the  failure  "  to  the  intractable  temper  of  your  friend 
Pitt,"  who  was  "  lying  on  his  back  at  Hayes  talking 
fustian."  Lord  Chesterfield,  as  usual,  exactly  spoke 
the  right  word  when  he  said  the  ministry  was  an  arch 
in  which  the  keystone  was  left  out,  and  of  course  the 
keystone  was  Pitt.  Both  in  his  own  day  and  in  ours 
Pitt  has  been  loudly  condemned  for  not  joining  Lord 
Eockingham  in  the  feeble  and  shortlived  ministry  of 
1765.  Mr.  Lecky  tells  us  that  this  refusal, ''  if  not  the 
worst,  was  certainly  the  most  disastrous  incident  of 


viii.]  IN  OPPOSITION  153 

Pitt's  career."  It  is  possible  that  the  combination  of 
Pitt,  Burke,  Conway,  and  the  blameless  Rockingham, 
might  have  made  an  eflficient  government  iu  time,  if 
Pitt  had  been  allowed  to  lead.  P>nt  P>urke  in  1765 
had  not  spoken  in  Parliament ;  Rockingham  never 
became  able  to  speak  in  it  at  all ;  the  old  Newcastle, 
whom  Pitt  now  utterly  despised,  was  enrolled  as  a 
member  of  the  new  ministry ;  and  Bute,  as  Pitt  feared, 
was  still  behind  the  throne.  Lastly,  Pitt  himself  was 
"  lying  on  his  back  at  Hayes,"  tortured  with  his  fell 
disease  and  constantly  a  prey  to  nervous  irritation. 
We  do  not  know  enough  to  condemn  him  for  refusing 
to  join  a  ministry  in  which  were  to  be  retained  some 
of  the  worst  elements  that  he  most  abhorred,  and 
wherein  he  had  good  reason  to  fear  that  the 
creatures  of  the  King  would  continue  to  hold  a  secret 
and  malign  influence.  But  even  if  we  knew,  more 
exactly  than  we  do,  all  that  acted  on  his  mind,  it 
would  not  be  just  to  treat  it  as  a  crime,  if  a  man,  in 
the  throes  of  disease  and  confined  to  a  sick-room  in 
his  country  house,  shrank  from  undertaking  a  public 
task  of  tremendous  difficulty  in  company  with  men, 
some  of  whom  he  regarded  as  frankly  mischievous  and 
all  of  whom  he  regarded  as  utterly  his  inferiors.  The 
early  years  of  George  iii.'s  reign  were  marked  by  a 
miserable  succession  of  feeble  and  incoherent  ministries. 
But  the  inner  cause  of  all  this  confusion  and  failure 
was  the  perverse  self-will  and  criminal  ambition  of 
George  himself. 

It  is  possible  that  a  powerful  and  stable  government 
might  have  been  ultimately  formed  by  a  loyal  com- 
bination of  Pitt,   Rockingham,   Shelburne,   Grafton, 


154  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Conway,  and  Bnrke  —  always  assuming  the  quiescence 
of  George  iii.  and  of  gout.  But  this  is  all  the  "  great- 
might-have-been."  In  1765  neither  Pitt  nor  any  one 
else  could  have  known  the  powers  of  Edmund  Burke, 
as  we  know  them  now.  And  they  were  at  best  those 
of  a  philosopher  rather  than  of  a  statesman.  But 
cabinet-making  one  hundred  and  forty  years  after  the 
date  is  an  even  more  futile  amusement  than  cabinet- 
making  by  contemporaries  in  a  crisis.  The  photo- 
graphic diaries  of  Waipole  record  at  least  six  different 
occasions  on  which  more  or  less  formal  negotiations 
were  opened  with  Pitt,  between  1762  and  1766,  to 
induce  him  to  form  or  to  join  a  ministry.  They  prove 
at  any  rate  that  he  was  not  eager  to  take  office.  We 
are  in  no  position  to  determine  that  he  failed  in  duty 
to  his  country  by  declining  all  these  overtures.  The 
better  solution  would  seem  to  be  that  disease,  with  all 
its  mental  and  moral  reaction,  had  much  to  do  with 
his  conduct.  And  George  in.  was  an  obstacle  even 
worse  than  the  gout.  Pitt  perhaps  wrote  the  truth 
when  he  said  to  Lord  Shelburne  (February  1766)  that 
he  would  never  owe  his  return  to  power  "  to  any  Court 
cabal  or  ministerial  connection."  All  the  dissolving 
ministries  between  1761  and  1766  were  patched  up  by 
one  or  other  of  these  methods,  and  some  of  them  by  both. 
At  last,  in  July  1766,  Pitt  was  almost  forced  by 
the  state  of  the  political  imbroglio  to  form  a  second 
administration.  But  before  treating  of  it,  it  will  be 
well  to  go  back  to  the  brief  ministries  of  Grenville  and 
Rockingham  to  show  the  difficulties  to  which  Pitt 
succeeded.  In  March  1764  Grenville  carried  a  resolu- 
tion to  charge  certain  Stamp  duties  on  the  American 


VIII.]  IN   OPPOSITION  165 

colonies.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  struggle  which 
was  destined  to  dominate  British  policy  for  a  genera- 
tion, and  indeed  to  affect  for  centuries  the  history  of 
mankind.  The  Stamp  Act  of  1765  was  calculated  to 
raise  £100,000,  and  it  was  proposed  to  expend  it  in 
contributing  to  the  cost  of  the  army  needful  to  be  kept 
in  America.  This,  under  the  vastly  enlarged  area  of 
the  colonies,  was  taken  to  mean  20,000  men.  The 
opposition  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  was  at 
first  not  great.  But  in  Parliament  Conway  and  Barre 
raised  objections.  Pitt  was  absent  from  Parliament 
almost  entirely  during  the  year.  He  was  laid  up  with 
recurrent  attacks  of  gout  from  the  time  of  his  power- 
ful speech  in  condemnation  of  General  Warrants.  In 
his  own  day  and  since  some  doubt  has  been  expressed 
as  to  the  degree  to  which  at  this  period  Pitt  was 
incapacitated  by  his  malady.  A  few  facts  about  it 
may  be  here  collected. 

In  January  1764  Charles,  the  heir  of  the  Duke  of 
Brunswick,  desiring  to  pay  a  compliment  and  to  visit 
the  statesman,  took  the  unusual  course  of  going  down 
to  see  him  in  the  country,  as  he  learned  that  there 
was  no  prospect  of  Pitt  being  able  to  be  carried  to 
town.  In  February  1765,  Pitt  writes  to  the  secretary 
of  the  Duke  that  his  gout  had  kept  him  in  bed  and 
prevented  him  from  holding  a  pen.  In  November 
1765  he  goes  again  to  Bath,  and  tells  his  wife  that 
"the  foot  is  much  swelled,  the  hand  less  weak."  "  He 
can  now  hold  a  pen."  "  He  can  stand  with  the  help 
of  crutches."  "He  can  hold  a  fork  at  dinner  and 
can  write  legibly."  In  December,  he  can  "crawl  to 
the  pump."     In  January  1766,  if  he  can  crawl  or  be 


156  CHATHAM  [chap. 

carried  to  town,  he  will  "  deliver  his  mind  and  heart 
on  the  state  of  America."  In  the  midst  of  the  debate 
on  the  Stamp  Act,  he  tells  his  wife  that  he  is  better 
except  in  one  leg.  He  hopes  "  to  be  able  to  remain 
through  the  debate."  In  May  1766,  he  has  to  go  to 
Bath  again;  and  tells  his  wife  "he  had  borne  the 
journey  well." 

He  was  in  the  west  country  when,  7th  July  1766, 
he  received  the  King's  command  to  travel  up  to 
Court  to  consult  him  as  to  a  new  ministry,  as  soon  as 
he  was  strong  enough.  It  was  not  till  12th  July  that 
he  arrived  in  London,  and  tells  his  wife  —  "I  got  safe 
to  town,  not  over  well,  having  found  the  fatigue  of  the 
first  day  too  much  for  me."  On  17th  July  he  tells 
his  wife  that  he  has  some  fever  hanging  on  him,  and 
a  long  and  painful  interview  with  his  brother-in-law. 
Temple,  had  raised  his  pulse.  On  19th  July  he  trusts 
to  be  able  next  week  to  attend  the  King  without  risk. 
At  last,  22nd  July  1766,  the  King  writes:  "Mr. 
Pitt,  I  am  glad  you  find  yourself  so  much  recovered  as 
to  be  able  to  come  to  me  to-morrow."  Such  was  the 
physical  state  of  the  man  whom  George  iii.  now 
summoned  to  direct  his  disordered  affairs  in  his  vast 
dominions.  It  was  hoped  that  he  would  be  strong 
enough  to  bear  a  journey  of  a  mile  or  two  to  meet  his 
sovereign.  The  life  of  Pitt  cannot  be  understood  at 
all  unless  we  fully  comprehend  the  constant  prostra- 
tion of  body  and  mind  which  afflicted  him  throughout 
his  career,  and  amply  explains  much  in  his  conduct. 
Hardly  any  famous  man  of  action  in  history  has  been 
so  heavily  and  so  continuously  disabled  by  physical 
and  mental  disorder. 


vin.]  IN  OPPOSITION  157 

A  man  so  delicate  and  irritable  wonld  naturally  often 
change  his  residence ;  and  accordingly  we  find  Pitt  in 
many  different  houses,  and  at  no  period  of  his  life 
more  than  at  this  time.  During  his  term  of  office 
of  Paymaster,  1746-1755,  he  lived  much  at  the  Pay 
Ofl&ce  at  Whitehall,  and  was  there  the  first  year  of  his 
marriage.  He  also  had  a  house  at  Enfield  in  Middle- 
sex, making  frequent  visits  to  Lord  Temple  at  Stowe, 
and  to  the  Grenvilles  at  Wotton.  For  the  first  six 
months  of  1754,  the  year  of  his  marriage,  he  was  at 
Bath,  taking  the  waters  and  very  lame. 

He  told  Grenville  as  early  as  1749,  that  he  had 
"  almost  experience  enough  of  the  Bath  waters  to  be  a 
physician  with  regard  to  them."  He  passed  much  of 
his  life  at  various  medicinal  springs,  and  was  at  Bath 
again  in  1755.  In  the  spring  of  1756  he  is  estab- 
lished at  Hayes,  a  property  which  he  bought  soon 
after  his  marriage. 

Hayes  Place  in  Kent  stands  on  a  salubrious  and 
well-wooded  hill,  about  twelve  miles  from  London, 
and  a  few  miles  south  of  Bromley.  He  built  there 
a  comfortable  country  house  of  no  great  pretensions, 
then  standing  close  to  a  quiet  village,  having  orna- 
mental grounds,  plantations,  and  pleasant  views.  Pitt 
gradually  enlarged  the  place  and  carried  on  his 
favourite  amusement  of  landscape  gardening,  planting 
shrubs  and  trees  with  the  same  passionate  energy  that 
he  threw  into  everything  he  touched.  He  loved  the 
spot,  and  his  letters  show  the  affection  for  it  that  he 
retained  through  life.  In  1766,  being  then  settled  at 
Burton  Pynsent,  he  sold  Hayes  Place  to  Thomas 
Walpole,  nephew  of  the  statesman,  who  at  once  made 


158  CHATHAM  [chap. 

alterations  in  the  house,  whicli  lie  greatly  enjoyed. 
But  within  a  year  Lady  Chatham  and  Lord  Camden 
induced  Mr.  Walpole  to  sell  back  the  place,  which  was 
thought  to  be  indispensable  for  restoring  Pitt's  ruined 
health  and  disordered  mind. 

During  his  own  ministry  Pitt  had  lived  in  St. 
James  Square  (No.  10),  the  house  occupied  for  a  season 
by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  1890.  When  he  resigned  office 
in  1761,  he  resided  at  Hayes ;  but  in  1766  and  1767 
he  took  Northend  House  at  Hampstead,  the  air  of 
which,  he  thought,  would  suit  his  complaint.  In  1765 
Sir  William  Pynsent,  a  baronet  of  Somersetshire,  said 
to  be  nearly  ninety  years  old,  and  known  to  be  eccen- 
tric and  an  ardent  opponent  of  the  government, 
devised  to  him  the  fine  estate  of  Burton  Pynsent, 
which  was  said  to  be  of  the  value  of  £3000  a  year, 
together  with  £30,000  in  money,  according  to  Wal- 
pole. Sir  William  Pynsent  was  personally  unknown 
to  Pitt,  and  the  gift  was  entirely  due  to  the  donor's 
admiration  of  the  statesman's  services  to  his  country. 
During  his  second  ministry  Pitt  occupied  for  a  time 
the  mansion  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton  in  Bond  Street. 
But  he  soon  retreated  to  the  country,  and  after  his 
resignation  he  continued  to  reside  for  the  most  part 
at  his  beloved  Hayes  Place.  It  was  thither  that  he 
was  carried  after  his  seizure  to  his  death-bed. 

It  may  be  taken  as  almost  certain  that,  if  Pitt  had 
been  in  his  place  and  in  full  possession  of  his  powers, 
the  disastrous  policy  of  taxing  the  American  colonies 
could  not  have  been  carried.  But  during  the  whole 
of  the  debates  on  Grenville's  Stamp  Act  of  1765,  Pitt 
was  away  at  Bath,   and  disabled    by  gout.     When 


vin.]  IN  OPPOSITION  159 

Lord  Rockingham  succeeded  Grenville,  one  of  his  first 
and  most  beneficial  measures  was  the  Repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  in  1766,  and  this  was  very  largely  due  to 
the  influence  and  eloquence  of  Pitt.  Up  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  1766  Pitt  remained  in  retirement 
at  Bath.  From  there  he  wrote  to  Lord  Slielburne 
protesting  against  "  the  making  good  by  force  there, 
preposterous  and  infatuated  errors  in  policy  here." 
In  January  1766  he  returned  to  the  House  of 
Commons  after  a  long  absence,  with  powers  materially 
restored.  The  King's  Speech  turned  on  the  disturbed 
state  of  the  American  colonies,  where  riots  and 
violent  opposition  made  the  Stamp  Act  wholly  un- 
workable. In  fact,  the  American  revolution  was  on 
the  point  of  breaking  out  eight  years  earlier  than  it 
did.  In  the  debates  which  brought  about  the  Repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act,  Pitt  had  a  leading  part.  As  these 
speeches  are  amongst  the  most  authentic  reports  we 
possess,  and  as  they  contain  many  of  his  noblest 
utterances,  it  may  be  well  to  quote  them  at  large :  — 

"  Sir,  I  came  to  town  but  to-day.  I  was  a  stranger  to  the 
tenor  of  his  Majesty's  speech  and  the  proposed  address,  till  I 
heard  them  read  in  this  House.  Unconnected  and  uncon- 
sulted,  I  have  not  the  means  of  information;  I  am  fearful  of 
offending  through  mistake,  and  therefore  beg  to  be  indulged 
with  a  second  reading  of  the  proposed  address."  The  address 
being  read,  Mr.  Pitt  went  on  :  —  "  He  commended  the  King's 
speech,  approved  of  the  address  in  answer  as  it  decided 
nothing,  every  gentleman  being  left  at  perfect  liberty  to  take 
such  a  part  concerning  America  as  he  might  afterwards  see 
fit.  One  word  only  he  could  not  approve  of;  'an  early'  is  a 
word  that  does  not  belong  to  the  notice  the  ministry  have 
given  to  Parliament  of  the  troubles  in  America.  In  a  matter 
of  such  importance,  the  communication  ought  to  have  been 


160  CHATHAM  [chap. 

immediate :  I  speak  not  with  respect  to  parties.  I  stand  up  in 
this  place  single  and  unconnected.  As  to  the  late  ministry 
(turning  himself  to  Mr.  Grenville,  who  sat  within  one  of  him), 
every  capital  measure  they  took  was  —  entirely  wrong  ! 

"  As  to  the  present  gentlemen,  those,  at  least,  whom  I 
have  in  my  eye  —  (looking  at  the  bench  on  which  IVIr. 
Conway  sat  with  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury)  —  I  have  no 
objection ;  I  have  Tiever  been  made  a  sacrifice  by  any  of 
them.  Their  characters  are  fair ;  and  I  am  always  glad  when 
men  of  fair  character  engage  in  his  Majesty's  service.  Some 
of  them  have  done  me  the  honour  to  ask  my  poor  opinion 
before  they  would  engage.  These  will  do  me  the  justice  to 
own,  I  advised  them  to  engage,  but  notwithstanding  —  for  I 
love  to  be  explicit — I  cannot  give  them  my  confidence;  pardon 
me,  gentlemen  (bowing  to  the  Ministry),  confidence  is  a  plant 
of  slow  growth  in  an  aged  bosom,  youth  is  the  season  of 
credulity ;  by  comparing  events  with  each  other,  reasoning 
from  effects  to  causes,  methinks  I  plainly  discover  the  traces 
of  an  overruling  influence. 

"  There  is  a  clause  in  the  Act  of  Settlement  obliging  every 
Minister  to  sign  his  name  to  the  advice  which  he  gives  his 
Sovereign.  Would  it  were  observed !  I  have  had  the  honour 
to  serve  the  Crown,  and  if  I  could  have  submitted  to  influence 
I  might  still  have  continued  to  serve;  but  I  would  not  be 
responsible  for  others.  I  have  no  local  attachments.  It  is 
indifferent  to  me  whether  a  man  was  rocked  in  his  cradle  on 
this  or  that  side  of  the  Tweed.  I  sought  for  merit  wherever  it 
was  to  be  found.  It  it  my  Jjoast,  that  I  was  the  first  minister 
who  looked  for  it,  and  found  it  in  the  mountains  of  the  North. 
I  called  it  forth,  and  drew  into  your  service  a  hardy  and 
intrepid  race  of  men  ;  men  who,  when  by  your  jealousy  they 
became  a  prey  to  the  artifices  of  your  enemies,  had  gone  nigh 
to  overturn  the  State  in  the  war  of  174.o.  These  men,  in  the 
last  war,  were  brought  to  combat  on  your  side ;  they  served 
with  fidelity,  as  they  fought  with  valour,  and  conquered  for 
you  in  every  part  of  the  world  ;  detested  be  the  national  reflec- 
tions against  them!  they  are  unjust,  groundless,  illiberal, 
unmanly.  When  I  ceased  to  serve  his  Majesty  as  a  Minister, 
it  was  not  the  country  but  the  man  by  which  I  was  moved. 


vni.]  IN  OPPOSITION  161 

The  man  of  that  country  [Bute]  wanted  wisdom,  and  held 
principles  incompatible  witli  freedom. 

"  It  is  a  long  time,  Mr.  Speaker,  since  I  have  attended  in 
Parliament.  When  the  resolution  was  taken  in  this  House  to 
tax  America,  I  was  ill  in  bed.  If  I  could  have  endured  to  have 
been  carried  in  my  bed,  so  great  was  the  agitation  of  my  mind 
for  the  consequences,  I  would  have  solicited  some  kind  hand  to 
have  laid  rae  down  on  this  floor,  to  have  borne  my  testimony 
against  it !  It  is  now  an  Act  that  has  passed.  I  would  speak 
with  decency  of  every  Act  of  this  House,  but  I  must  beg  the 
indulgence  of  the  House  to  speak  of  it  with  freedom. 

"  I  hope  the  day  may  soon  be  appointed  to  consider  the  state 
of  the  nation  with  respect  to  America — I  hope  gentlemen  will 
come  to  this  debate  with  all  the  temper  and  impartiality  that 
his  Majesty  recommends,  and  the  importance  of  the  subject 
requires.  A  subject  of  greater  importance  than  ever  engaged  the 
attention  of  this  House !  that  subject  only  excepted,  when,  near 
a  century  ago,  it  was  the  question  whether  you  yourselves 
were  to  be  bond  or  free.  Inthe  mean  time,  as  I  cannot  depend 
upon  health  for  any  future  day,  such  is  the  nature  of  my 
infirmities,  I  will  beg  to  say  a  few  words  at  present,  leaving 
the  justice,  the  equity,  the  policy,  the  expediency  of  the  Act 
to  another  time.  I  will  only  speak  to  one  point,  a  point  which 
seems  not  to  have  been  generally  understood — I  mean  as  to  the 
right  to  tax.  Some  gentlemen  seem  to  have  considered  it  as  a 
point  of  honour.  If  gentlemen  consider  it  in  that  light,  they 
leave  all  measures  of  right  and  wrong  to  follow  a  delusion 
that  may  lead  to  destruction.  It  is  my  opinion,  that  this  King- 
dom has  no  right  to  lay  a  tax  upon  the  colonies.  At  the  same 
time  I  assert  the  authority  of  this  kingdom  over  the  colonies 
to  be  sovereign  and  supreme  in  every  circumstance  of  govern- 
ment and  legislation  whatsoever.  'I'he  colonists  are  the  sub- 
jects of  this  kingdom,  equally  entitled  with  yourselves  to  all 
the  natural  rights  of  mankind  and  the  peculiar  privileges  of 
Englishmen  :  equally  bound  by  its  laws,  and  equally  partici- 
pating in  the  constitution  of  this  free  country.  The  Americans 
are  the  sons,  not  the  bastards,  of  England.  Taxation  is  no 
part  of  the  governing  or  legislative  power.  The  taxes  are  the 
voluntary  gift  and  grant  of  the  Commons  alone.     In  legislation 


162  CHATHAM  [chap. 

the  three  estates  of  the  realm  are  alike  concerned,  but  the  con- 
currence of  the  Peers  and  the  Crown  to  a  tax  is  only  necessary 
to  clothe  it  with  the  form  of  a  law.  The  gift  and  grant  is  of 
the  Commons  alone.  In  ancient  days,  the  Crown,  the  Barons, 
and  the  Clergy  possessed  the  lands.  In  those  days,  the  Barons 
and  the  Clergy  gave  and  granted  to  the  Crown.  They 
gave  and  granted  what  was  their  own.  At  present,  since  the 
discovery  of  America,  and  other  circumstances  permitting, 
the  Commons  are  become  the  proprietors  of  the  land.  The 
Church  (God  bless  it !)  has  but  a  pittance.  The  property  of 
the  Lords,  compared  with  that  of  the  Commons,  is  as  a  drop  of 
water  in  the  ocean :  and  this  House  represents  those  Commons, 
the  proprietors  of  the  lands,  and  those  proprietors  virtually 
represent  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants.  When,  therefore,  in 
this  House,  we  give  and  grant,  we  give  and  grant  what  is  our 
own.  But  in  an  American  tax,  what  do  we  do?  We,  your 
Majesty's  Commons  for  Great  Britain,  give  and  grant  to  your 
Majesty — what?  Our  own  property ?  —  No!  We  give  and 
grant  to  your  Majesty,  the  property  of  your  Majesty's  Com- 
mons of  America.     It  is  an  absurdity  in  terms. 

"  The  distinction  between  legislation  and  taxation  is  essentially 
necessary  to  liberty.  The  Crown,  the  Peers,  are  equally  legis- 
lative powers  with  the  Commons.  If  taxation  be  a  part  of 
simple  legislation,  the  Crown  and  the  Peers  tmuld  have  rights 
in  taxation  as  well  as  yourselces ;  rights  which  they  claim, 
which  they  will  exercise,  whenever  the  principle  can  be  sup- 
ported by  power. 

"  There  is  an  idea  in  some,  that  the  colonies  are  virtually 
represented  in  this  House.  I  would  fain  know  by  whom  an 
American  is  represented  here.  Is  he  represented  by  any 
knight  of  the  shire,  in  any  county  of  this  kingdom?  Would 
to  God  that  respectable  representation  were  augmented  to  a 
greater  number  !  Or  will  you  tell  him  that  he  is  represented 
by  any  representative  of  a  borough  ? — a  borough  which  perhaps 
its  own  representatives  never  saw.  This  is  what  is  called  the 
rotten  part  of  the  constitution.  It  cannot  continue  a  century.  If 
it  does  not  drop,  it  must  be  amputated.  The  idea  of  a  virtual 
representation  of  America  in  this  House  is  the  most  contempt- 
ible that  ever  etitered  into  the  head  of  man  :  it  does  not 
deserve  a  serious  refutation. 


vm.]  IN  OPPOSITION  163 

"  The  Commoners  of  America,  represented  in  their  several 
assemblies,  have  ever  been  in  possession  of  the  exercise  of  this 
their  constitutional  right,  of  giving  and  granting  their  own 
money.  They  would  have  been  slaves  if  they  had  not  enjoyed 
it.  At  the  same  time  this  Kingdom,  as  the  supreme  govern- 
ing and  legislative  power,  has  always  bound  the  colonies  by 
her  laws,  by  her  regulations  and  restrictions  in  trade,  in 
navigation,  in  manufactures  —  in  everything  except  that  of 
taking  their  money  out  of  their  pockets  without  their  consent. 

"  Here  I  would  draw  the  line, 

"  '  Quam  ultra  citraque  nequit  consistere  rectum.^" 

Pitt  warf  answered,  by  Grenville.  In  his  reply,  he 
said :  — 

"  Gentlemen  have  been  charged  with  giving  birth  to  sedition 
in  America.  Several  have  spoken  their  sentiments  with  free- 
dom against  this  unhappy  Act,  and  that  freedom  has  become 
their  crime.  Sorry  I  am  to  hear  the  liberty  of  speech  in  this 
House  imputed  as  a  crime.  But  the  imputation  shall  not  dis- 
courage me.  It  is  a  liberty  I  mean  to  exercise.  No  gentle- 
man ought  to  be  afraid  to  exercise  it.  It  is  a  liberty  by  which 
the  gentleman  who  calumniates  it  might  have  profited.  He 
ought  to  have  profited.  He  ought  to  have  desisted  from  his 
project.  The  gentleman  tells  us  America  is  obstinate ; 
America  is  almost  in  open  rebellion.  /  rejoice  that  America 
has  resisted.  Three  millions  of  people  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings 
of  liberty,  as  voluntarily  to  let  themselves  be  made  slaves,  would 
have  been  Jit  instruments  to  make  slaves  of  all  the  rest.  I  come 
not  here  armed  at  all  points  with  law  cases  and  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment, with  the  statute-book  doubled  down  in  dogs'-ears,  to 
defend  the  cause  of  liberty :  if  I  had,  I  myself  would  have 
cited  the  two  cases  of  Chester  and  Durham.  I  would  have 
cited  them  to  show  that,  even  under  arbitrary  reigns,  Parlia- 
ments were  ashamed  of  taxing  a  people  without  their  consent, 
and  allowed  them  representatives.  Why  did  the  gentleman 
confine  himself  to  Chester  and  Durham  ?  he  might  have  taken 
a  higher  example  in  Wales  —  Wales,  that  never  was  taxed  by 
Parliament  until  it  was  incorporated.  I  would  not  debate  a 
particular  point  of  law  with  the  gentleman:   I  know  his 


164  CHATHAM  [chap. 

abilities.  I  have  been  obliged  to  his  diligent  researches.  But, 
for  the  defence  of  liberty,  upon  a  general  principle,  upon  a 
constitutional  principle,  it  is  a  ground  on  which  I  stand  firm ; 
on  which  I  dare  meet  any  man.  The  gentleman  tells  us  of 
many  who  are  taxed  and  are  not  represented  —  the  India  Com- 
pany, merchants,  stockholders,  manufacturers.  Surely  many 
of  these  are  represented  in  other  capacities,  as  owners  of  land, 
or  as  freemen  of  boroughs.  It  is  a  misfortune  that  more  are  not 
actually  represented.  But  they  are  all  inhabitants  of  this 
kingdom,  and,  as  such,  are  they  not  virtually  represented? 
Many  have  it  in  their  option  to  be  actually  represented.  They 
have  connections  with  those  that  elect,  and  they  have  influence 
over  them.  The  gentleman  mentioned  the  stockholders :  I 
hope  he  does  not  reckon  the  debts  of  the  nation  as  a  part  of 
the  national  estate.  Since  the  accession  of  King  William, 
many  ministers,  some  of  great,  others  of  moderate  abilities, 
have  taken  the  lead  of  government. 

"  None  of  these  thought,  or  even  dreamed,  of  robbing  the 
colonies  of  their  constitutional  rights.  That  was  reserved  to 
mark  the  era  of  the  late  administration ;  not  that  there  were 
wanting  some,  when  I  had  the  honour  to  serve  his  Majesty, 
to  propose  to  me  to  burn  my  fingers  with  an  American  Stamp 
Act.  With  the  enemy  at  their  back,  with  our  bayonets  at 
their  breasts  in  the  dayof  their  distress,  perhaps  the  Americans 
would  have  submitted  to  the  imposition  ;  but  it  would  have 
been  taking  an  ungenerous  and  unjust  advantage.  The  gentle- 
man boasts  of  his  bounties  to  America  !  Are  not  thosebounties 
intended  finally  for  the  benefit  of  this  kingdom?  If  they  are 
not,  he  has  misapplied  the  national  treasures.  I  am  no  courtier 
of  America  —  I  stand  up  for  this  kingdom.  I  maintain  that 
the  Parliament  has  a  right  to  bind,  to  restrain  America.  Our 
legislative  power  over  the  colonies  is  sovereign  and  supreme. 
AVhen  it  ceases  to  be  sovereign  and  supreme,  I  would  advise 
every  gentleman  to  sell  his  land,  if  he  can,  and  embark  for 
that  country.  When  two  countries  are  connected  like  England 
and  her  colonies,  without  being  incorporated,  the  one  must 
necessarily  govern  ;  the  greater  must  rule  the  less ;  but  so  rule 
it,  as  not  to  contradict  the  fundamental  principles  that  are 
common  to  both. 


viii.]  IN  OPPOSITION  165 

"  If  the  gentleman  does  not  understand  the  difference 
between  internal  and  external  taxes,  T  cannot  help  it ;  but 
there  is  a  plain  distinction  between  taxes  levied  for  the  pur- 
poses of  raising  a  revenue,  and  duties  imposed  for  the  regula- 
tion of  trade,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  subject ;  although 
in  the  consequences  some  revenue  might  incidentally  arise 
from  the  latter. 

"  The  gentleman  asks,When-were  the  colonies  emancipated? 
I  desire  to  know  when  they  were  made  slaves  ?  But  I  dwell 
not  upon  words.  When  I  had  the  honour  of  serving  his 
Majesty,  I  availed  myself  of  the  means  of  information  which 
I  derived  from  my  office  :  I  speak,  therefore,  from  knowledge. 
My  materials  were  good  ;  I  was  at  pains  to  collect,  to  digest, 
to  consider  them  ;  and  I  will  be  bold  to  affirm  that  the  profits 
of  Great  Britain  from  the  trade  of  the  colonies,  through  all  its 
branches,  are  two  millions  a  year.  This  is  the  fund  that  carried 
you  triumphantly  through  the  last  war.  The  estates  that  were 
rented  at  two  thousand  pounds  a  year,  threescore  years  ago, 
are  at  three  thousand  pounds  at  present.  Those  estates  sold 
then  for  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  years'  purchase ;  the  same 
may  now  be  sold  for  thirty.  You  owe  this  to  America.  This 
is  the  price  America  pays  for  her  protection.  And  shall  a  mis- 
erable Jj/iancier  come  with  a  boast,  that  he  can  fetch  a  peppercorn 
into  the  Exchequer,  bjj  the  loss  of  millions  to  the  nation!  I  dare 
not  say  how  much  higher  these  profits  may  be  augmented. 
Omitting  the  immense  increaseofpeople.by  natural  population, 
in  the  northern  colonies,  and  the  emigration  from  every  part 
of  Europe,  I  am  convinced  that  the  whole  commercial  system 
of  AmericaTnaybe  altered  to  advantage.  You  have  prohibited 
wh  ere  you  ought  to  have  encouraged ;  and  you  have  encoiiraged 
where  you  ought  to  have  prohibited.  Improper  restraints  have 
been  laid  on  the  continent  in  favour  of  these  islands.  You  have 
but  two  nations  to  trade  with  in  America.  Would  you  had 
twenty !  Let  Acts  of  Parliament  in  consequence  of  treaties 
remain, but  letnot  an  English  minister  become  acustom-house 
officer  for  Spain,  or  for  any  foreign  power.  IVIuch  is  wrong  — 
much  may  be  amended  for  the  general  good  of  the  whole. 

''Does  the  gentleman  complain  that  he  has  been  misrepre- 
sented in  the  public  prmts?    It  is  a  common  misfortune.    la 


166  CHATHAM  [chap. 

the  Spanish  affair  of  last  war,  I  was  abused  in  all  the  news- 
papers for  having  advised  his  Majesty  to  violate  the  Law  of 
Nations  with  regard  to  Spain.  The  abuse  was  industriously 
circulated  even  in  handbills.  If  your  administration  did  not 
propagate  the  abuse,  the  administrr^tion  never  contradicted  it. 
I  will  not  say  what  advice  I  did  give  to  the  King.  My  advice 
is  in  writing  signed  by  myself,  in  the  possession  of  the  Crown. 
But  I  will  say  what  advice  I  did  not  give  to  the  King.  I  did 
not  advise  him  to  violate  any  of  the  Laws  of  Nations. 

"  The  gentleman  must  not  wonder  that  he  was  not  contra- 
dicted when,  as  the  minister,  he  asserted  the  right  of  Parlia- 
ment to  tax  America.  I  know  not  how  it  is,  but  there  is  a 
modesty  in  this  House  which  does  not  choose  to  contradict 
a  minister.  Even  that  chair,  Mr.  Speaker,  sometimes  looks 
towards  St.  James's.  I  wish  gentlemen  would  get  the  better 
of  this  modesty.  If  they  do  not,  perhaps  the  collective  body 
may  begin  to  abate  of  its  respect  for  the  representative. 

"  A  great  deal  has  been  said  without  doors  of  the  power,  of 
the  strength,  of  America.  It  is  a  topic  that  ought  to  be 
cautiously  meddled  with.  In  a  good  cause,  on  a  sound  bottom, 
the  force  of  this  country  can  crush  America  to  atoms.  I  know 
the  valour  of  your  troops  ;  I  know  the  skill  of  your  officers. 
There  is  not  a  company  of  foot  that  has  served  in  America,  out 
of  which  you  may  not  pick  a  man  of  sufficient  knowledge  and 
experience  to  make  a  governor  of  a  colony  there.  But  on  this 
ground  —  on  the  Stamp  Act  —  when  so  many  here  will  think 
it  is  a  crying  injustice,  I  am  one  who  will  lift  up  my  hands 
against  it. 

"  In  such  a  cause  even  your  success  would  be  hazardous. 
America,  if  she  fell,  tvould  fall  like  the  strong  man  Samson.  She 
would  embrace  the  pillars  of  the  State,  and  pull  down  the  consti- 
tution along  with  her.  Is  this  your  boasted  Peace?  To  sheathe 
the  sword,  not  in  its  scabbard,  but  in  the  bowels  of  your 
countrymen  ?  Will  you  quarrel  with  yourselves,  now  that  the 
whole  House  of  Bourbon  is  united  against  you  ?  While  France 
disturbs  your  fisheries  in  Newfoundland,  embarrasses  your 
slave-trade  to  Africa,  and  withholds  from  your  subjects  in 
Canada  their  property  stipulated  by  treaty  ;  while  the  stipu- 
lated ransom  for  the  Manilas  is  refused  by  Spain,  and  it.^ 


viii.]  IN  OPPOSITION  167 

gallant  conqueror  basely  traduced  into  a  mean  plunderer  —  a 
gentleman  whose  noble  and  generous  spirit  would  do  honour 
to  the  proudest  grandee  of  the  country.  The  Americans  have 
not  acted  in  all  things  with  prudence  and  temper.  The 
Americans  have  been  wronged.  They  have  been  driven  to 
madness  by  injustice.  Will  you  punish  them  for  the  madness 
which  you  have  occasioned  ?  Rather  let  prudence  and  temper 
come  first  from  this  side.  I  will  undertake  for  America  that 
she  will  follow  the  example.  There  are  two  lines  in  a  ballad 
of  Prior's,  of  a  man's  behaviour  to  his  wife,  so  applicable  to  ■ 
you  and  your  colonies,  that  I  cannot  help  repeating  them  :  — 

"  '  Be  to  her  faults  a  little  blind ; 
Be  to  her  virtues  very  kind.' 

"Upon  the  whole,  I  will  beg  leave  to  tell  the  House 
what  is  really  my  opinion.  It  is,  that  the  Stamp  Act  be 
repealed  absolutely,  totally,  and  immediately.  That  the  reason 
for  the  repeal  be  assigned,  because  it  was  founded  on  an 
erroneous  principle.  At  the  same  time,  let  the  sovereign 
authority  of  this  country  over  the  colonies  be  asserted  in  as 
strong  terms  as  can  be  devised,  and  be  made  to  extend  to 
every  point  of  legislation  whatsoever.  We  may  bind  their 
trade,  confine  their  manufactures,  and  exercise  every  power 
whatsoever,  except  that  of  taking  their  money  out  of  their 
pockets  without  their  consent." 

The  motion  for  an  address  was  carried  without  a 
division.  On  the  26th  of  February  a  bill  to  repeal  the 
Stamp  Act  was  introduced,  and  received  the  Royal 
assent  on  the  18th  of  March.  Together  with  the  bill 
to  repeal  the  Stamp  Act  was  introduced  another,  called 
the  Declaratory  Act,  asserting  the  undoubted  power 
and  authority  of  the  King,  with  the  consent  of  the 
Lords  and  Commons  in  Parliament  assembled,  to  make 
laws  of  sufficient  force  to  bind  the  colonies  and  people 
of  America  in  all  cases  whatsoever.  This  bill  also 
received  the  Royal  assent  on  the  18th  of  March. 


168  CHATHAM  [chap.  viii. 

This  was  the  first  of  the  great  efforts  of  Pitt  to 
spare  his  country  and  the  world  the  evils  of  the  great 
struggle  with  the  Colonies.  The  long  and  vain  appeal 
was  to  be  closed  only  with  his  dying  speech.  But 
Americans  were  more  ready  than  his  countrymen  at 
home  to  recognise  all  they  owed  him.  The  Commons 
House  of  South  Carolina  unanimously  voted  to  Pitt 
a  colossal  statue  in  Charleston,  "  in  grateful  memory 
of  his  services  to  America  "  ;  "  for  defending  the  free- 
dom of  Americans,  the  true  sons  of  England,  by  pro- 
moting a  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  in  1766."  And  the 
inscription  ran  :  —  '-'  Time  shall  sooner  destroy  this 
mark  of  their  esteem  than  erase  from  their  minds  the 
just  sense  of  his  patriotic  virtue." 

It  stands  there  still,  it  seems,  after  all  that  has 
passed  since  that  date.  "  Tlie  right  arm  teas  broken  off 
by  a  British  cannon  shot  in  1780."  Such  are  the  ironies 
of  the  whirligig  of  Time. 


( 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    CHATHAM    MINISTRY 

That  second  term  of  responsible  office  has  a  fatal  and 
melancholy  record.  "  The  Great  Commoner  "  became 
Earl  of  Chatham ;  he  was  forced  to  frame  a  ministry 
by  inevitable  pressure  of  events  and  the  command  of 
the  King ;  whilst  disease  of  body  and  mind  made  him 
powerless,  and  at  last  quite  irresponsible  —  ending  in 
mere  impotence  and  the  wreck  of  a  great  career.  He 
was  'Most  in  quicksands,"  says  Carlyle  —  "suffering 
from  gout,  from  semi-insanity."  Macaulay  attributes 
his  failures  to  "his  distempered  state  of  mind"  ;  and 
to  the  "  derangement  of  his  faculties  "  being  complete 
towards  the  close  of  his  public  service.  His  enthusi- 
astic eulogist  mildly  describes  this  as  "  the  least  sat- 
isfactory part  of  his  history."  Indeed  it  was.  The 
Chatham  Ministry  is  the  strange  and  pathetic  story  of 
a  Prime  Minister  continuing  in  office  during  two  years, 
though  disabled  by  the  state  of  his  mind,  not  only 
from  directing  the  policy  of  his  government,  but  even 
from  seeing  his  colleagues  or  knowing  what  they  were 
doing,  whilst  an  obstinate  King  and  his  bewildered 
servants  prepared  ruin  for  the  country  under  the  shield 
of  a  great  name. 

169 


170  CHATHAM  [chap. 

The  ascendency  of  Pitt  over  the  minds  of  politicians 
and  of  the  public  was  so  great,  even  whilst  he  was  lying 
in  his  sick-room  at  Bath,  that  every  administration 
which  had  not  his  support,  or  at  least  his  name,  was 
regarded  as  a  stop-gap.  As  each  of  them  fell  to  pieces 
from  internal  dissension  and  their  own  blunders,  the 
word  in  public  places  and  in  the  King's  closet  had 
always  been,  "  send  for  Pitt."  By  a  singular  but  intel- 
ligible coincidence,  George,  who  five  years  ago  was  eager 
to  rid  himself  of  Pitt  and  dreaded  him  as  a  tribune  of 
the  people,  was  now  as  eager  to  call  him  to  office.  Pitt 
and  the  King  had  now  the  same  constitutional  aim, 
different  as  were  the  methods  they  intended  to  use  and 
the  ultimate  purpose  to  be  served.  It  was  a  large  aim : 
in  many  ways  a  necessary  and  salutary  aim  :  an  aim 
which  in  effect  was  practically  achieved,  even  in  the 
lifetime  of  Pitt  and  of  the  King.  It  was  nothing  less 
than  the  closing  the  era  of  government  by  Magnates. 

From  the  time  of  William  iii.,  government  had  been 
in  the  hands  of  aristocratic  groups,  "controlling,"  as 
the  modern  phrase  has  it,  parliamentary  influence  by 
means  of  corruption,  patronage,  and  wealth.  The 
force  and  sagacity  of  Walpole  had  displaced  this  for 
a  time;  and  the  genius  and  popularity  of  Pitt  had 
shaken  it  off  for  a  second  time.  But  for  six  years 
George  iii.  had  found  himself  in  the  grip  of  the  great 
Houses.  Their  groups  were  known  as  their  "  con- 
nection "  —  Pitt  often  called  them  the  "  factions."  He 
avowed  it  as  his  purpose  "to  get  rid  of  faction." 
There  was  a  "  Pelham  faction,"  a  "  Bute  faction,"  a 
"  Grenville  faction,"  a  "  Kockingham  faction,"  a  "  Bed- 
ford faction."    And  there  was  Pitt. 


IX.]  THE   CHATHAM   MINISTRY  171 

George  had  desired  to  get  free  from  Pitt  in  1761 
because  Pitt  was  too  masterful,  too  popular,  and 
George  was  bent  on  being  a  real  King  himself.  But 
Pitt  was  now  a  very  different  man,  both  morally  and 
physically,  from  what  he  had  been  in  the  years  of 
Quebec  and  Quiberon  Bay.  George  now  felt  that  he 
could  safely  use  him,  that  he  was  the  one  man  living 
who  could  break  the  reign  of  the  Houses  and  their 
"  connections."  George  had  not  the  coarseness  of  his 
grandfather;  he  had  plenty  of  bonhomie;  and  in 
tactical  intrigue  he  was  a  match  for  any  man  of  his 
time.  His  personal  treatment  of  Pitt  was,  and  always 
remained,  gracious,  kind,  and  conciliatory.  Pitt,  with 
his  magnanimous  nature  and  idealist  brain,  was  over- 
whelmed by  the  King's  condescension.  He  overrated 
his  own  powers,  and  above  all  his  influence  over  men. 
He  again  believed  that  "  he  could  save  the  country, 
and  that  no  one  else  could."  His  idea  was  to  put  an 
end  to  government  by  "  connections  " ;  to  replace  it 
by  government  by  competent  men,  chosen  without 
regard  to  party  group  or  family,  supported  by  the 
King's  confidence  and  that  of  the  representatives  of 
the  people. 

It  was  a  fine  ideal  which  in  a  measure  has  been 
realised  from  time  to  time  ever  since  Pitt's  son  came 
into  power.  George  of  course  intended  to  be  King 
himself,  when  Pitt  should  have  freed  him  from  the 
confederated  Houses.  Pitt  on  his  side  intended  to 
be  master,  borrowing  the  magical  authority  of  the 
Crown,  and  counting  to  regain  his  old  ascendency 
with  the  public.  If  George  had  been  Victoria,  if 
Pitt    had    possessed    the    vitality  of  Palmerston  ox 


172  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Gladstone,  this  might  have  been  the  resiilt.  But 
George  was  an  artful,  obstinate  bigot.  Pitt  was  a 
physical  wreck,  hastening  to  mental  impotence.  Both 
George  and  Pitt  soon  found  that  the  lordly  Houses 
were  not  to  be  broken  so  easily.  Both  had  to  appeal 
to  them,  first  to  one  and  then  to  another.  Chatham 
found  that  the  House  of  Lords  neither  followed  him 
nor  feared  him ;  that,  when  he  had  quitted  it,  the 
House  of  Commons  became  a  field  for  small  intrigues 
and  restless  ambitions.  And  so  the  Chatham  ministry, 
after  making  some  well-intentioned  attempts  at  reform, 
ended  in  confusion,  and  left  behind  it  the  seeds  of 
fatal  mischief. 

The  new  ministry  was  formed,  after  laborious 
negotiations  and  personal  jealousies  which  we  may 
now  ignore,  out  of  heterogeneous  and  almost  dis- 
cordant elements,  taken  from  different  parties  and  even 
representing  opposing  policies.  There  were  some  men 
of  ability,  character,  and  great  position,  like  the  young 
Duke  of  Grafton  and  the  young  Earl  of  Shelburne. 
Pratt,  now  Lord  Camden,  was  an  able  and  upright 
Chancellor.  The  honourable  General  Conway  was 
drawn  off  from  the  Rockingham  "  connection " ;  but 
Edmund  Burke  refused  to  leave  it.  The  brilliant  and 
unscruplous  Charles  Townshend  was  made  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  and  Leader  of  the  Commons  ;  Lord 
North  was  Paymaster;  and  Lord  Granby  was  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. The  "  King's  friends  "  held  most  of 
the  minor  places.  Some  members  of  the  government 
were  relicts  of  the  older  groups;  some  differed  in 
principle  from  each  other  and  from  their  chief.  None 
of  them  had  much  experience  of  affairs,  or  any  political 


IX.]  THE   CHATHAM  MINISTRY  173 

weight.  And  the  House  of  Commons  was  placed  in 
the  control  of  a  reckless  rhetorician.  Not  only  was 
the  "Cousinhood"  now  hopelessly  broken,  but  what 
remained  of  it  was  vehemently  hostile  to  Pitt.  George 
Grenville  had  become  his  ablest  opponent;  Lord 
Temple  was  reconciled  to  his  brother  George,  and, 
with  Lyttelton,  was  in  open  revolt  against  his  brother- 
in-law.  Pitt  pressed  on  Temple  the  office  of  Treasurer, 
but  would  not  allow  him  to  come  in  as  a  sort  of  Joint 
Prime  Minister.  Thereupon  the  vain  Temple  went 
into  bitter  opposition. 

Pitt  had  grossly  miscalculated  his  own  forces  when 
he  undertook  to  frame  a  government.  He  strangely 
underrated  the  secret  powers  of  the  Magnates.  And 
he  loftily  despised  the  petty  jealousies,  vanities,  and 
ambitions  of  the  office-seekers  and  title-hunters  around 
him.  His  clear-headed  friend,  Grafton,  said  —  "his 
views  were  great  and  noble,  worthy  of  a  patriot ;  but 
they  were  too  visionary."  It  was  not  the  age  of 
Tabii,  Publicolas,  and  Scipios,  but  of  Newcastle, 
Townshend,  Henry  Fox,  and  Lord  Temple.  When 
Pitt  went  to  call  on  Lord  Rockingham,  that  great 
personage  curtly  refused  to  see  him.  Temple  hired 
satirists  to  lampoon  his  brother-in-law ;  and  Edmund 
Burke  now  conceived  a  vehement  prejudice  against 
the  man  who  succeeded,  and,  as  he  thought,  had  dis- 
placed his  own  patron,  Rockingham. 

But  more  disastrous  than  the  choice  of  men  of 
different  principles  or  of  no  principles,  was  the  fatal 
mistake  of  transforming  the  "Great  Commoner"  into 
the  Earl  of  Chatham.  It  was  done  without  the 
knowledge  of  his  colleagues,  causing  them  dismay, 


174  CHATHAM  [chap. 

and  rousing  the  public  to  indignation.  The  illuminar 
tions  were  countermanded ;  the  new  Bridge  was  not  • 
to  bear  his  name.  The  City,  it  was  said,  "had 
brought  in  a  virdict  of  felo  cle  se."  It  is  probable 
that  if  he  had  attempted  to  form  his  ministry  as 
Lord  Chatham,  and  not  as  Mr.  Pitt,  it  would  never 
have  been  formed  at  all.  The  amazement  of  the 
public,  the  rage  of  his  party-followers  in  the  City, 
was  unreasonable  and  ignorant.  In  his  day  —  and 
ever  since,  as  in  our  day — a  peerage  was  regarded  as 
the  natural  reward  of  long  official  service.  Peel  and 
Gladstone  are  the  only  examples  of  Prime  Ministers 
who,  at  the  end  of  their  careers,  have  rejected  the 
honour  on  principle.  William  Pitt  and  Canning  died 
in  office  quite  young ;  Melbourne  and  Palmerston 
were  Peers.  Walpole,  Pulteney,  Addington,  Kussell, 
Disraeli,  all  retired  late  in  life  to  the  Upper  House. 
It  was  a  silly  clamour  that  would  have  it  that  Pitt 
had  "betrayed  the  people,"  or  had  taken  a  title 
as  a  bribe  to  change  his  principles.  His  whole 
after  life  was  a  reply  to  such  gross  and  stupid 
calumny. 

The  reason  of  the  step  is  plain.  Pitt  took  office  at 
the  urgent  and  long-continued  demand  of  the  King, 
full  of  great  things  to  be  done,  and  fondly  believing 
himself  strong  enough  to  do  them.  He  grossly  over- 
rated his  moral  ascendency.  He  perhaps  overrated 
his  physical  powers.  But  he  was  quite  aware  that 
to  remain  Leader  in  the  Commons,  or  even  to  under- 
take any  laborious  department,  would  be  his  death. 
He  accordingly  took  the  Privy  Seal,  a  sinecure  office, 
which  usually  was  held  by   a  Peer.     In   his  eyes, 


II.]  THE   CHATHAM  MINISTRY  175 

retirement  to  the  Upper  House  was  an  essential 
condition  of  his  forming  a  government.  His  ruined 
health  was  the  dominant  motive.  But  Pitt,  with  his 
superstition  about  the  "grand  manner,"  could  see  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  be  created  an  Earl,  any- 
more than  Lord  John  Russell  did  when  he  left  the 
Commons  as  a  political  compromise.  And  it  would 
be  monstrous  injustice  to  suggest  that  either  states- 
man forfeited  a  single  principle  or  forsook  any  political 
following  when,  towards  the  close  of  their  lives,  they 
sought  the  solemn  peace  of  the  Gilded  Chamber. 

None  the  less,  the  acceptance  of  the  Earldom  of 
Chatham  shook  Pitt's  ascendency  to  the  root,  and 
doomed  his  second  ministry  to  failure.  Though  it 
was  in  no  sense  unworthy  of  him,  nor  did  it  at  all 
impair  his  independence,  though  in  many  ways  it  gave 
him  new  wisdom  and  dignity  of  bearing,  it  was  a 
political  disaster.  It  was  remembered  how  Walpole, 
the  Earl  of  Orford,  met  in  the  House  of  Lords 
Pulteney,  the  Earl  of  Bath,  saying,  "  Here  are  we,  my 
Lord,  the  two  most  insignificant  fellows  in  England." 
The  transfer  from  the  Commons  to  the  Peers  was 
made  not  at  the  end  of  a  ministry,  but  whilst  re- 
maining Prime  Minister,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
Earldom  of  Disraeli.  It  may  have  been  inevitable. 
It  shows  in  him  a  curious  na'iveU  of  spirit,  or  it  may  be 
an  innocent  ignorance  of  the  average  mind,  to  have 
overlooked  the  consequences  of  the  step.  But,  if  it 
was  inevitable  that  Pitt  should  become  Lord  Chatham 
—  and  in  some  ways  perhaps  this  was  a  gain  to  him, 
a  gain  to  the  country,  —  it  would  have  been  better  that 
he  should  not  have  formed  a  Chatham  Ministry. 


176  CHATHAM  [chap. 

The  three  keenest  observers  of  that  age  saw  the 
weakness  of  the  position.  Horace  Walpole  wrote  — 
"  That  fatal  title  blasted,  all  the  affection  which  his 
country  had  borne  to  him,  and.  which  he  had  deserved 
so  well."  "  Lord  Chatham's  authority  ceased  with  his 
popularity ;  and  his  godhead,  when  he  had  affronted 
his  priests."  Of  the  new  ministry  Walpole  wrote  with 
that  acute  sight  and  pungent  pen  which  tells  us  more 
than  Burke's  effervescent  rhetoric.  *'The  plan  will 
probably  be  to  pick  and  cull  from  all  quarters,  and 
break  all  parties  as  much  as  possible.  From  this 
moment  I  date  the  wane  of  Mr.  Pitt's  glory ;  he  will 
want  the  thorough-bass  of  drums  and  trumpets,  and  is 
not  made  for  peace."  One  very  bad  sign  for  Lord 
Chatham  is  this,  wrote  Chesterfield,  "  all  his  enemies 
rejoice  and  all  his  friends  are  stupefied  and  dumb- 
founded." "  He  had  fallen  upstairs,  and  would  never 
stand  on  his  own  legs  again."  What  could  account 
for  "  his  going  into  that  Hospital  of  Incurables  "  ?  That 
keen  onlooker  saw  clearly  that  the  opposition  in  the 
Commons  would  prevail,  when  there  was  no  Pitt  to 
control  them.  Edmund  Burke  in  a  famous  passage, 
more  than  ordinarily  florid  and  fanciful,  described  how 
Lord  Chatham  "  made  an  administration  so  chequered 
and  speckled ;  he  put  together  a  piece  of  joinery 
so  crossly  indented  and  whimsically  dovetailed ;  a 
Cabinet  so  variously  inlaid  ;  such  a  piece  of  diversified 
mosaic ;  such  a  tessellated  pavement  without  cement, 
here  a  bit  of  black  stone  and  there  a  bit  of  white ; 
patriots  and  courtiers ;  King's  friends  and  Republicans ; 
Whigs  and  Tories ;  treacherous  friends  and  open 
enemies,  that   it  was   indeed  a  very  curious   show, 


IX.]  THE   CHATHAM   MINISTRY  177 

but    utterly  unsafe    to   touch  and  unsure  to   stand 
on."  1 

It  was  disastrous  too  that  the  season  of  1766  was 
the  worst  on  record ;  the  harvest  was  miserable ;  riots 
ensued,  and  the  public  effervescence  was  at  its  height. 
Upon  this  the  new  ruinisters  laid  an  embargo  on  the 
export  of  corn,  and  forbade  the  distilling  of  wheat. 
This,  as  they  knew,  was  illegal  and  required  confirma- 
tion by  Parliament.  Chatham  boldly  defended  this 
arbitrary  act  on  the  ground  of  necessity  and  the  needs 
of  the  public.  It  was  his  first  appearance  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  He  spoke  with  modesty,  good  sense, 
and  sound  law,  grounding  his  defence  on  the  doctrines 
of  Locke.  The  embargo,  he  said,  was  an  act  of  power, 
extra  vires  —  but  j  ustified  by  necessity.  The  opposition 
in  both  Houses  was  bitter  and  prolonged.  Temple, 
Lyttelton,  Mansfield,  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  led  it  in 
the  Lords ;  George  Grenville,  Burke,  Wedderburn 
in  the  Commons.  When  the  Bill  of  Indemnity  was 
sent  up  to  the  Lords  from  the  Commons,  Chatham 
spoke   again,  and  with   more   vehemence.     He    said, 

1  Here  we  have  Burke  in  the  worst  vices  of  his  exuberance.  The 
image  is  a  jumble  of  tautology,  in  which  rank  rhetoric  overpowers 
good  sense:  — it  is  literary  glitter,  not  political  judgment.  It  may 
serve  to  test  the  difference  between  the  eloquence  of  Pitt  and  that  of 
Burke.  Pitt  was  given  to  extravagance :  but  it  was  the  fiery  passion 
of  the  statesman,  not  the  verbal  embroidery  of  an  orator.  Chester- 
field had  already  put  the  truth  in  simpler  words  when  he  wrote,  "  It 
is  a  Mosaic  ministry  made  up  of  pieces  rapportdes  from  different  con- 
nections." As  a  fact,  the  Chatham  ministry  contained  many  honest 
and  capable  men,  four  able  statesmen,  one  very  brilliant  orator.  If 
Pitt  could  have  remained  in  the  House  of  Commons,  have  retained 
his  health  and  his  personal  a.scendency,  the  government,  which  was 
a  ministry  of  measures,  not  of  parties,  nor  of  Houses,  might  have 
done  excellent  service  and  have  spared  us  the  war  with  America. 
N 


178  CHATHAM  [chap. 

"when  the  people  should  condemn  him  he  should 
tremble ;  but  would  set  his  face  against  the  proudest 
connection  in  this  country."  The  Duke  of  Richmond 
took  this  up  with  heat.  "He  hoped  the  nobility 
would  not  be  brow-beaten  by  an  insolent  minister." 
Chatham  hotly  replied.  The  world  believed  that  the 
Duke  had  silenced  his  opponent.  The  House  required 
both  Lords  to  keep  the  peace.  And  as  a  fact,  Chatham 
did  not  again  appear  in  the  House  of  Lords  during  his 
own  administration.  It  was  too  true  that  disease, 
nervous  tension,  and  an  overbearing  nature  were 
making  Chatham  impracticable  as  a  Parliamentary 
Minister. 

There  could  be  no  character  more  hopelessly  out 
of  place  in  forming  an  administration  than  Chatham 
in  the  crisis  of  his  nervous  maladies,  unless  it  were 
Coriolanus  standing  for  the  Consulate.  Mr.  Pitt  had 
been  haughty  :  but  the  Earl  of  Chatham  was  insolent. 
He  offended  the  very  men  he  was  inviting  to  join  him. 
When  Lord  Edgecombe,  the  Treasurer  of  the  House- 
hold and  a  strong  supporter  of  his  policy,  declined  to 
resign,  as  required,  and  referred  to  his  own  parlia- 
mentary interest,  Chatham  broke  out:  "I  despise 
your  parliamentary  interest !  I  do  not  want  your 
assistance  —  I  dare  look  in  the  face  the  proudest  con- 
nections in  this  country."  After  inviting  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  to  a  friendly  conference,  he  treated  him  so 
that  his  Grace  withdrew  "  in  astonishment  and  angry 
disgust."  General  Conway,  his  Secretary  of  State, 
was  so  deeply  offended  by  Chatham's  scornful  silence 
and  high-handed  proceedings,  that  he  could  hardly  be 
induced  to  retain  his  seals.    He  behaved,  said  Conway, 


1 


IX.]  THE   CHATHAM  MINISTRY  179 

like  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople.  And,  what  was 
perhaps  his  most  unfortunate  mistake,  Chatham  re- 
buffed Edmund  Burke  with  a  coolness  which  that 
aspiring  orator  never  forgave.  Curiously  enough,  it 
was  Burke's  Free  Trade  ideas  which  so  deeply  offended 
Chatham's  craze  for  Preferential  duties  within  the 
Empire.  So  true  is  it  that  ideas  of  Empire  and  of 
Protection  go  hand  in  hand !  During  the  first  few 
months  of  his  ministry,  whilst  Chatham  retained  some 
possession  of  his  faculties,  his  whole  remaining  energies 
were  taken  up  with  angry  altercations,  fruitless 
negotiations,  bitter  rebuffs,  and  incessant  resignations. 
It  is  a  pitiful  story,  for  it  is  the  story  of  disease,  of  the 
wreck  of  a  powerful  mind  and  a  grand  nature  under 
the  degeneration  of  the  nervous  system. 

In  such  a  state  of  things  the  policy  of  government 
was  utterly  chaotic ;  and  the  House  of  Commons  be- 
came the  arena  of  casual  intrigues  and  personal  pre- 
tensions. And  withal  there  was  a  strange  sense  that 
their  real  master  was  in  a  trance,  that  there  was  a 
head  of  government  somewhere,  invisible  and  inactive 
as  he  seemed.  This  was  wonderfully  expressed  in  a 
famous  speech  of  Burke.  "  Perhaps  this  House  is  not 
the  place  where  our  reasons  can  be  of  any  avail :  the 
gi'eat  person  who  is  to  determine  on  this  question  may 
be  a  being  far  above  our  view ;  one  so  immeasurably 
high,  that  the  greatest  abilities  (pointing  to  Mr. 
Townshend),  or  the  most  amiable  dispositions  that  are 
to  be  found  in  this  House  (pointing  to  Mr.  Conway) 
may  not  gain  access  to  him;  a  being  before  whom 
'thrones,  dominations,  princedoms,  virtues,  powers' 
(waving  his  hand  over  the  Treasury  bench),  all  veil 


180  CHATHAM  [chap. 

their  faces  with  their  wings.  But,  though  our  argu- 
ments may  not  reach  him,  probably  our  prayers  may ! " 
Burke  then  apostrophised  the  Great  Minister  above, 
that  rules  and  governs  over  all,  to  have  mercy  and  not 
to  destroy  the  work  of  his  own  hands.  All  this  is 
eloquent — almost  poetry — and  highly  characteristic  of 
two  men  of  genius.  It  is  magnificent  invective  de- 
riding the  mysterious  stupor  of  a  great  statesman. 

Chatham  was  hardly  seated  in  office  before  he  re- 
newed his  old  scheme  of  a  vast  continental  alliance  to 
counterbalance  the  union  of  the  House  of  Bourbon  in 
the  monarchies  of  France  and  Spain.  Before  taking 
office  he  had  stipulated  for  this  from  the  King.  His 
mind  was  still  under  the  formidable  shadow  of  the 
Family  Compact  of  1761.  In  his  first  Cabinet  Council 
he  passed  a  minute  for  forming  a  Triple  Defensive 
Alliance  with  Great  Britain,  Russia,  and  Prussia  as 
principals,  with  purport  to  invite  the  accession  of  Den- 
mark, Sweden,  and  Holland,  with  such  of  the  German 
and  other  powers  as  could  be  brought  in  by  mutual 
agreement.^  This  he  described  as  forming  "  a  firm 
and  solid  system  in  the  North  to  counterbalance  the 
great  and  formidable  alliance  framed  by  the  House  of 
Bourbon."  Special  embassies  and  instructions  were  at 
once  sent  to  St.  Petersburg  and  to  Berlin  to  consolidate 
the  alliance  —  "to  establish  a  firm  and  solid  system  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  public  tranquillity,"  wrote 
Chatham  himself  to  his  ambassador  in  Berlin.  If 
Frederick  would  accede  to  this  alliance,  "I  see  before 

iThe  insolent  and  audacious  Townshend  said,  as  he  left  the 
Council,  "Chatham  shows  us  what  iuferior  animals  we  are  1  His 
superiority  is  transcendent !  " 


IX.]  THE   CHATHAM  MINISTRY  181 

us,"  added  Chatham,  "a  happy  prospect  of  durable 
tranquillity."  It  seems  that  Chatham  really  intended 
a  defensive  alliance,  and  was  seriously  alarmed  at  the 
attitude  of  France.  He  evidently  considered  war  to 
be  within  measurable  calculations. 

Was  this  a  mere  delusion  ?  Not  altogether.  The 
whole  force  of  France  and  of  Spain  was  now  in  the 
hands  of  men  of  vigour  and  ambition.  The  Bourbon 
combination  was  a  very  real  thing,  and  possessed  vast 
latent  resources.  The  Austrian  Empire  was  now  its 
friend,  and  incessant  secret  efforts  were  made  to  attach 
to  itself  Sweden,  Poland,  and  other  powers.  Choiseul, 
a  French  counterpart  of  Pitt  in  his  way,  was  straining 
every  nerve  to  restore  the  navy  of  France,  and  in  four 
years  he  accomplished  this  end  whilst  he  was  making 
secret  preparations  to  strike  at  England.  Choiseul 
and  Chatham  distrusted,  watched,  and  feared  each 
other.^  And  it  must  always  be  remembered  that,  only 
three  years  after  Chatham's  death,  the  triumph  of  the 
United  States  was  secured  at  York  Town  mainly  by 
the  overwhelming  superiority  of  the  French  fleet  in 
American  waters. 


1  liOrd  Edmond  Fitzmaurice  has  collected  documentary  evidence 
of  all  this.  He  writes  (Life  of  Shelhurne,  ii.  .3)  :  "Ever  since  the 
peace,  Choiseul  and  Grimaldi  had  been  scheming  how  to  win  back 
what  they  had  lost.  They  had  gained  Austria  to  their  alliance  ;  they 
were  intriguing  in  Stockliolm,  and  plotting  in  Copenhagen  ;  they  were 
fishing  in  the  troubled  waters  of  Polish  politii's  ;  their  emissaries 
traversed  the  English  colonies  ;  their  spies  surveyed  the  defences  of 
the  English  coast  ;  Portsmouth  was  to  be  destroyed,  and  Gibraltar 
to  be  seized  by  a  coup  de  main;  Avignon  was  to  be  annexed  to 
France,  and  Portugal  to  Spain  ;  Corsica  was  to  be  invaded  ;  Geneva 
was  threatened."  The  two  ministers  resolved  to  wait.  "  Their  only 
fear  was  lest  Chatham  should  precipitate  hostilities." 


182  CHATHAM  [chap. 

But  if  there  was  real  ground  for  guarding  against 
the  designs  of  the  Bourbon  monarchies  to  retaliate 
upon  the  power  which  had  crushed  and  despoiled 
them,  there  is  no  answer  to  the  admirable  wisdom  of 
Frederick  in  declining  to  enter  anew  coalition.  Russia 
was  now  on  more  friendly  terms  with  him  than  she 
was  with  England.  She  thought  a  Prussian  alliance 
quite  suflBcient  support,  as  it  certainly  was.  In  reply 
to  the  proposed  triple  alliance,  Frederick  said  he  now 
saw  no  likelihood  of  war.  France,  in  her  exhausted 
state,  could  not  make  war ;  Spain  even  less,  owing  to 
her  internal  troubles.  Such  a  confederation  as  was 
proposed  would  give  jealousy  to  other  powers,  and 
afford  a  pretext  for  disturbing  the  general  tranquillity. 
Alliances  made  with  a  view  to  distant  events  "are 
matters  of  ostentation."  The  Italians  had  a  proverb  — 
Chi  sta  bene  non  se  rrniove,  i.e.  "  Leave  well  alone." 

The  Prussian  King  added  that  he  feared  the  many 
questions  outstanding  between  England  and  France 
would  be  the  occasion  of  a  new  war  between  them,  in 
which  Prussia  would  have  no  interest  to  engage.  He 
was  now  determined  to  devote  himself  to  the  peaceful 
organisation  of  his  own  kingdom,  and  to  restore  the 
sacrifices  made  in  the  late  war.  He  could  not  forget 
the  way  in  which  he  had  been  treated  when  England 
hurried  on  a  peace  without  considering  the  interests 
of  her  Prussian  ally.  The  peace  had  been  followed 
by  a  series  of  weak  and  shifting  governments  in 
England.  And,  much  as  he  respected  his  friend  who 
had  now  succeeded  to  power,  he  feared  that,  in  becom- 
ing Earl  of  Chatham,  Mr.  Pitt  had  greatly  injured  the 
power  he  used  to  wield.    Here  as  elsewhere,  one  is 


IX.]  THE   CHATHAM   MINISTRY  183 

impressed  with  the  truth  that  Frederick  ii.  as  a 
statesman  was  far  the  greatest  man  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Another  grand  scheme  on  which  Chatham's  mind 
was  now  bent  was  the  future  settlement  of  the  new 
Empire  in  India.  A  vast  territory  larger  than  the 
British  Islands,  with  a  population  of  twenty  millions 
and  a  revenue  of  live  or  six  millions  a  year,  was  now 
held  by  a  trading  company,  whose  dominant  ideas 
were  plunder  and  dividends.  Their  officials  were 
insubordinate  and  rapacious,  and  the  conquered  sub- 
jects were  the  victims  of  every  form  of  misrule  and 
extortion.  At  home  the  proprietors  cared  for  nothing 
but  to  increase  the  dividends,  which  they  intended  to 
fix  by  a  guarantee  of  ten  years  at  fifteen  per  cent,  on 
their  holdings.  This  system  of  irresponsible  iniquity 
Chatham  resolved  to  close.  And  the  first  step  was  to 
bring  the  conquered  lands  under  the  control  of  the 
Crown,  and  to  make  a  parliamentary  settlement  of 
revenues  which  the  tradesmen  claimed  as  their  private 
perquisite. 

In  letters  to  his  colleagues  Chatham  speaks  of  "  the 
transcendent  object.  East  India  affairs,"  "  the  greatest 
of  all  objects"  —  the  question  as  to  the  right  of  the 
Company  to  dispose  of  this  enormous  revenue.  His 
view  of  the  right  was  this,  as  he  explained  long  after- 
wards :  —  There  was  a  mixed  right  to  the  territorial 
revenues  of  the  conquered  provinces  between  the 
State  and  the  Company  —  the  State  being  entitled  to 
the  larger  share  as  the  larger  contributor  by  its  fleet 
and  men.  And  the  Company's  share  could  never  be 
considered  as  private  property  to  be  divided  as  profits, 


184  CHATHAM  [chap. 

but  must  be  held  in  trust  for  the  public  purposes  of 
defence  of  India  and  the  extension  of  trade.  He  held 
that  conquests  of  vast  territories,  never  contemplated 
by  the  Company's  charter  and  mainly  made  by  the 
forces  of  the  Crown,  could  confer  no  indefeasible  rights 
of  sovereignty  on  a  body  of  traders.  These  noble  pro- 
vinces must  be  claimed  as  dominions  of  the  Crown, 
and  governed  as  such.  The  Charter  had  only  secured 
to  the  Company  a  few  factories  on  the  rivers  and 
coasts,  but  not  such  vast  provinces  as  Bengal,  Orissa, 
and  Behar.  The  merchants  were  entitled  to  their 
commercial  privileges  and  a  moderate  return  for  their 
invested  capital. 

So  far  Chatham's  statesmanlike  insight  has  been 
amply  justified  by  events.  But  his  eager  ambition 
saw  visions  of  an  era  of  just  and  beneficent  govern- 
ment dispensed  to  the  people  of  India ;  and,  in  place 
of  "  enriching  a  band  of  greedy  factors,"  a  revenue 
which  should  eventually  lighten  the  taxation  of  our 
country,  and  extinguish  the  debt  which  had  been 
created  by  the  wars.  In  this  his  anticipations  egregi- 
ously  outran  the  facts.  Like  the  rest  of  his  contem- 
poraries, he  greatly  overrated  the  wealth  of  Hindustan. 
And  he  wholly  failed  to  gauge  the  narrow  and  self- 
seeking  spirits  by  whom  he  was  served  and  surrounded. 
In  the  result  something  was  effected,  but  his  noble 
hopes  of  reforming  the  government  of  India  were 
destroyed  by  the  intrigues  of  his  colleagues  and  the 
breakdown  of  his  own  powers. 

Chatham's  first  aim  was  to  obtain  a  searching  inquiry 
in  Parliament;  and  for  this  purpose  he  put  up  his 
friend,  Alderman   Beckford,  to   move  for  this  as  an 


IX.]  THE   CHATHAM  MINISTRY  185 

independent  member  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Chatham  himself  declined  to  formulate  any  scheme  of 
reform  until  the  inquiry  was  complete,  nor  would  he 
even  submit  a  scheme  to  his  Cabinet.  There  was 
nothing  in  this  course  unusual  in  such  cases  of  com- 
plicated legislation.  The  inquiry  was  warmly  opposed 
in  successive  debates  by  the  Opposition  leaders,  who 
defended  the  Company  in  the  name  of  their  Charter, 
It  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  history  that  the  most 
eloquent  speech  in  resisting  any  restraint  on  the 
arbitrary  powers  of  the  Company  was  delivered  by 
Edmund  Burke.  He  made  one  of  his  most  brilliant 
orations  in  defence  of  the  colleagues  and  patrons  of 
Clive  and  Hastings  —  a  speech  wherein  occurred  the 
Apocalyptic  attack  on  Chatham  already  cited.  Had 
Chatham  succeeded  in  reorganising  the  government  of 
India  in  1766,  Burke  would  not  have  had  to  denounce 
such  a  record  of  crimes  and  tyranny  as  he  unfolded  at 
Westminster  in  1788. 

When  the  inquiry  came  before  the  House,  and  dur- 
ing the  debates,  Chatham  was  in  his  sick-room,  either 
at  Marlborough,  Hampstead,  or  at  Bath,  occasionally 
dictating  peremptory  letters  to  Grafton  and  Shelburne, 
but  attending  no  Councils  nor  appearing  in  Parlia- 
ment. Conway,  whom  he  had  deeply  offended,  and 
Townshend,  the  brilliant  mountebank,  whom  he  had 
so  unwisely  placed  in  the  Exchequer,  both  played  false 
to  their  paralysed  chief  and  thwarted  any  serious 
inquiry.  Chatham  (by  correspondence)  thundered 
against  the  weakness  and  disloyalty  of  his  colleagues, 
reiterated,  with  his  usual  vehemence,  his  anxieties,  his 
fears,  and  his  behests.     Some  check  was  put  on  the 


186  CHATHAM  [chap. 

division  of  the  spoil.  But  nothing  effective  came  of 
it ;  and  for  a  generation  India  remained  the  happy 
hunting-ground  of  British  "  nabobs." 

Another  urgent  reform  attempted  by  the  Chatham 
ministry  was  to  remedy  the  gross  misgovernment  of 
Ireland.  The  rule  of  that  kingdom  was  a  corrupt 
oligarchy,  controlled  by  Lords  Justices,  with  little  inter- 
ference from  the  central  government,  and  a  Parliament 
of  borough-mongers,  elected  for  the  life  of  the  King. 
In  1767  Lord  Townshend  was  sent  over  by  Chatham 
as  Viceroy,  with  instructions  to  remain  in  constant 
residence,  virtually  superseding  the  irresponsible  power 
of  the  Lords  Justices.  The  new  ministry  were  pre- 
pared to  support  a  Septennial  Act  to  limit  the  duration 
of  the  Irish  Parliament,  to  reform  the  tenure  of  the 
Judges  on  the  English  basis,  of  holding  office  "  during 
good  conduct "  and  not  "  during  pleasure "  of  the 
Crown.  The  whole  conduct  of  Pitt,  as  of  Chatham, 
whether  in  his  two  ministries  as  well  as  before  and 
after  both  of  them,  was  to  extend  towards  Ireland  the 
same  spirit  of  liberal  government,  the  same  respect 
for  local  liberties  and  popular  representation  which 
he  advocated  towards  the  Colonies.  But  the  utter 
collapse  of  his  health  prevented  Chatham  during  his 
second  administration  from  carrying  through  any 
effective  reform  —  just  as  it  had  done  in  the  case  of 
the  government  of  India. 

Tho  next  escapade  of  the  unscrupulous  rhetorician 
to  whom  Chatham  had  entrusted  the  finances  of  the 
country  was  to  allow  the  Opposition  to  reduce  the 
land  tax  from  four  to  three  shillings  in  the  pound.  By 
this  blunder   the  Exchequer  lost  half   a  million,  the 


I 


IX.]  THE  CHATHAM  MINISTRY  187 

amount,  as  Chesterfield  said,  ''  of  the  bribe  the  landed 
gentlemen  had  voted  to  themselves."  Chatham  was 
incensed  with  Townshend  for  this  and  for  his  conduct 
in  the  India  question,  and  wrote  that  he  or  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  must  quit  office.  He 
would  have  acted  on  this  threat,  but  now  he  fell  into 
such  a  state  of  nervous  prostration  that  he  declined  to 
take  part  in  any  business,  or  even  to  have  matters  of 
business  referred  to  him  at  all. 

In  the  meantime  Charles  Townshend  broke  out  into 
au  act  of  reckless  folly,  far  more  serious  than  any  of 
his  previous  extravagances.  Without  consulting  his 
colleagues,  he  proposed  an  import  duty  on  various 
goods  entering  America.  To  this  the  Cabinet  objected ; 
but,  in  the  absence  of  Chatham,  unable  even  to  consult 
him,  to  resist  Townshend,  or  to  dismiss  him,  the 
ministers  accepted  the  measure,  which  quietly  passed 
both  Houses.  The  ignorance  of  the  times,  and  the 
arrogant  complacency  of  the  home  government  was 
such  that  this  critical  step  passed  without  opposition 
and  with  little  remark.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the 
long  and  ruinous  struggle  which  for  twenty  years 
divided  the  mother  country  and  her  American  colonies. 

The  Duke  of  Grafton,  Chatham's  most  trusted 
friend,  quotes  the  Earl's  letter  to  himself  (March 
1767),  to  the  effect  that  "  the  East  India  business  was 
the  capital  object  of  the  publick  upon  which  Lord 
Chatham  would  stand  or  fall."  He  then  tells  us  how 
"  a  suppressed  gout  falling  on  his  nerves,  to  a  degree 
sufficient  to  master  his  resolution,"  rendered  Chatham 
unfit  to  see  any  of  his  colleagues.  "  From  this  time 
he  became  invisible."    "  Here,  in  fact,  was  the  end  of 


188  CHATHAM  [chap. 

his  administration."  The  Duke  and  the  Chancellor 
•went  to  the  King  and  told  him  that  the  ministry  was 
in  fact  dissolved,  and  they  urged  George  to  call  upon 
Chatham  to  advise  him  as  to  his  course.  All  that  they 
got  "was  a  statement  in  Lady  Chatham's  handwriting 
declining  any  visit.  The  King  wrote  within  the  month 
of  June  no  less  than  eight  letters  to  his  Prime  Minister 
urging  on  him  the  chaos  into  which  government  had 
fallen,  imploring  him  to  see  the  Duke  or  to  give  some 
suggestion  as  to  what  should  be  done.  To  every  appeal 
came  the  same  reply.  He  is  overwhelmed  with  the 
boundless  extent  of  the  royal  goodness.  He  lays  him- 
self at  the  King's  feet.  In  his  extreme  weakness  of 
nerves  and  spirits  he  "  could  not  sustain  the  weight  of 
an  audience " :  he  could  not  offer  any  suggestion ;  he 
is  utterly  incapable  of  the  smallest  effort. 

The  Duke  did  obtain  one  interview  with  Chatham, 
and  he  reports :  "  His  nerves  and  spirits  were  affected 
to  a  dreadful  degree  :  and  the  sight  of  his  great  mind 
bowed  down,  and  thus  weakened  by  disorder,  would 
have  filled  me  with  grief  and  concern,  even  if  I  had  not 
borne  a  sincere  attachment  to  his  person  and  char- 
acter." It  appeared,  he  says,  like  cruelty  to  have  to 
put  a  man  he  valued  to  so  great  suffering.  All  that 
the  Duke  could  wring  from  his  shattered  chief  was  a 
request  to  remain  in  office  and  to  open  negotiations 
with  the  Bedfords  rather  than  the  Rockinghams  — 
advice  truly  unfortunate,  to  be  explained  only  by  aber- 
ration of  mind.  At  this  time  his  condition  is  thus 
described  by  the  secretary  of  George  Grenville  as 
"the  lowest  dejection  and  debility  that  mind  or  body 
can  be  in."     He  sits  all  day  leaning  on  his  hands  which 


IX.]  THE  CHATHAM  MINISTRY  189 

rested  on  a  table :  would  permit  no  one  to  remain  in  his 
room,  knocks  when  he  needs  anything  and  then  silently 
signals  to  the  attendant  to  retire.  At  the  mention  of 
politics  he  starts  and  trembles  violently  from  head  to 
foot.  He  could  bear  no  noise,  and  his  children  had  to 
be  removed  from  his  roof.  To  avoid  sound,  he  took 
house  after  house  near  his  own.  He  ordered  planta- 
tions to  be  made  round  his  garden  at  ruinous  cost  and 
hurried  on  with  feverish  haste  by  night  as  by  day. 
His  appetite  was  sickly  and  uncertain.  He  could  bear 
no  delay ;  and  kept  chickens  ready  cooked  at  any  hour 
that  he  felt  able  to  eat.  By  a  deed  he  gave  Lady 
Chatham  a  power  of  attorney  to  transact  all  business 
of  every  kind.  He  moved  from  Hampstead  to 
Somersetshire,  and  then  to  Bath.  He  passionately 
sought  to  repurchase  Hayes  Place,  which  he  had  sold 
to  Mr.  Thomas  Walpole.  "  That  might  have  saved 
me ! "  he  murmured,  when  the  purchaser  hesitated  to 
part  with  his  bargain.  But  at  Lady  Chatham's  earnest 
entreaty,  Walpole  reluctantly  consented  to  surrender 
the  place. 

Such  was  the  pitiable  nervous  prostration  of  the 
"  great  Earl,"  in  which  the  Chatham  administration 
fell  to  pieces,  whilst  the  seeds  of  future  disaster  were 
sown  thick  in  the  confusion  of  parties  and  the  tangle 
of  folly,  intrigue,  and  obstinacy  in  which  politics  were 
plunged.  It  was  natural  that  spiteful  and  scandalous 
reports  were  rife  in  the  world.  Some  said  he  was 
mad:  others  that  he  was  shamming  madness.  Even 
Horace  Walpole  allowed  his  ill-nature  so  far  to  over- 
come his  good  sense  as  to  put  it  on  record  that  he 
inclined  to  think  his  extravagances  were  feigned.     The 


190  CHATHAM  [chap.  ix. 

lampoons  were  continual,  and  the  pseudo-Jnnius  called 
him  "  a  lunatic  brandishing  a  crutch."  He  could  no 
longer  "  lie  on  his  back  and  talk  fustian,"  as  Burke 
said.  He  was  not  at  all  insane :  still  less  was  he  acting 
a  part.  He  was  afflicted  with  nervous  paralysis,  and 
sat  impotent  and  silent.  And  the  fortunes  of  England 
were  delivered  over  to  the  perverse  ambition  of  a 
dogged  King,  to  the  mischievous  counsels  of  a  dis- 
tracted ministry,  whilst  the  greatest  brain  and  the 
finest  soul  of  the  age  lay  as  it  were  in  some  mysterious 
trance.^ 


1  Lord  Edmond  Fitzmaurice,  when  preparing  his  Life  of  Shel- 
hurne,  obtained  from  Sir  Andrew  Clark  an  opinion  as  to  Chatham's 
complaint.  "  Suppressed  gout  disordered  the  whole  nervous  sys- 
tem, and  drove  him  into  a  state  of  mental  depression,  varying  with 
excitement  and  equivalent  to  insanity.  But  there  was  no  specific 
brain  disease."  After  a  bad  attack  of  external  gout  the  patient 
entirely  recovered  his  force  of  mind. 


CHAPTER  X 

DEFENCE    OF    IRELAND    AND    INDIA 

The  remaining  years  of  Chatham's  life,  from  his  final 
resignation  of  office  in  October  1768,  until  his  death  in 
May  1778,  were  broken  by  long  intervals  of  retirement 
and  disease,  but  were  illuminated  by  some  splendid 
efforts  from  time  to  time  to  withstand  the  follies  and 
crimes  of  those  in  power,  to  call  out  the  moral  sense  of 
his  countrymen,  to  give  voice  to  the  inmost  warning 
of  conscience,  of  reason,  and  justice.  He  warmly 
defended  the  freedom  and  independence  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Ireland.  He  passionately  called  for  reforma- 
tion of  the  corrupt  government  of  India,  such  as  might 
win  the  confidence  and  affections  of  the  native 
population.  He  constantly  pressed  for  a  Reform  of 
Parliament  and  the  amendment  of  the  system  of  close 
Boroughs.  He  was  regarded  as  the  champion  of  the 
Protestant  Dissenters  against  the  prejudices  and  ex- 
clusions of  a  pampered  Establishment.  He  w^arned  the 
nation  of  the  danger  of  allowing  the  strength  of  the 
Navy  to  be  reduced,  a  warning  the  force  of  which  was 
so  soon  to  be  justified  at  York  Town.  But  the  main 
strength  of  his  efforts  in  public  and  in  private  was 
given  all  through  these  years  to  the  struggle  with  the 

191 


192  CHATHAM  [chap. 

American  Colonies.  By  speeches  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  by  appeals  to  influential  men,  in  conferences 
with  Dr.  Franklin,  in  many  personal  negotiations,  he 
strove  to  stem  the  oppressive  policy  of  the  King,  and  to 
satisfy  the  just  claims  of  the  American  States.  He 
inveighed,  with  horror  and  with  a  magnificence  of 
language  which  has  grown  to  be  a  part  of  English 
literature,  against  the  perverse  folly  of  prolonging  a 
hopeless  and  disastrous  Civil  War,  and  against  the 
inhuman  barbarities  which  too  often  disgraced  it. 

The  course  of  time,  the  slow  advance  of  justice  and 
morality  in  matters  of  State,  have  justified  every  one 
of  these  warnings  and  appeals.  Chatham  was  the 
precursor  in  fact  of  reforms  which  were  not  achieved 
until  the  century  which  followed  his  own :  which  even 
yet  have  been  but  imperfectly  effected:  some  of 
which  are  burning  problems  with  us  still  to-day.  It  is 
to  be  numbered  amongst  the  heaviest  clouds  which 
darken  the  history  of  our  country,  that  these  splendid 
attempts  of  the  fallen  statesman  were  heard  by  the 
King  and  his  creatures  with  sullen  disdain.  Not  one 
of  them  had  any  effect  in  changing  the  course  of  events 
or  in  mitigating  the  disasters  and  humiliations  which 
criminal  folly  entailed  on  its  authors.  But  whilst 
these  noble  words  of  the  lonely  statesman  are  enshrined 
in  the  records  of  our  country,  he  will  not  be  to  future 
generations  that  which  he  was  to  his  own  —  a  voice 
crying  in  the  wilderness.  In  the  eyes  of  those  who 
place  Honour  and  Justice  above  Empire,  who  place  the 
Happiness  of  the  People  above  Glory  and  Conquests, 
the  last  ten  years  of  Chatham's  career,  though  he 
laboured  in  vain  to  convince  a  besotted  faction,  and  to 


X.]  DEFENCE    OF  IRELAND  AND   INDIA  193 

reverse  a  policy  of  ruin,  will  always  stand  forth  with 
a  truer  brilliance  than  the  five  years  of  his  dictatorship 
when  he  sent  forth  fleets  to  annihilate  those  of  our 
rivals,  and  organised  the  armies  which  conquered  an 
Empire. 

The  state  of  his  health,  his  irritable  and  domineer- 
ing temper,  the  angry  air  of  suspicion  and  jealousy  in 
the  competing  factions  amongst  whom  he  lived,  whose 
suspicions  he  so  deeply  imbibed,  rendered  this  period 
of  Chatham's  life  a  melancholy  failure.  Had  he  been 
born  to  the  throne  of  an  hereditary  despot,  as  were 
King  Frederick  and  the  Emperor  Joseph,  had  his  mind 
not  been  unhinged  by  disease,  and  his  nature  not 
soured  by  the  enmity  of  weak  men  born  into  great 
power,  Chatham  would  have  proved  one  of  the  most 
triumphant  rulers  of  modern  times.  If  he  had  pos- 
sessed the  adroitness  of  Walpole,  the  serene  wisdom  of 
Washington,  the  patience  and  knowledge  of  the  world 
of  his  own  son,  he  might  have  again  commanded  the 
country.  But  never  was  man  less  patient,  less  toler- 
ant of  weakness,  more  disdainful  of  all  the  arts  of 
compromise  and  conciliation.  If  only  he  could  have 
formed  a  genuine  and  permanent  alliance  with  Kock- 
ingham,  Camden,  Shelburne,  and  Burke,  from  the 
hour  when  he  recovered  command  of  his  powers;  if 
only,  with  all  his  devotion  to  the  Constitution,  he 
could  have  conceived  the  position  of  a  Constitutional 
Minister ;  if,  once  the  idol  of  the  people,  he  could  have 
remained  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  could  have 
carried  through  its  Reform  —  then  our  country  might 
have  been  saved  from  some  of  its  worst  excesses  in 
India,  in  Ireland,  and  at  home,  and  from  some  of  its 
o 


194  CHATHAM  [chap. 

bitterest  humiliations  in  America.  But  what  Horace 
Walpole  called  his  ''presumptuous  impracticability" 
made  such  a  coalition  impossible  from  the  first. 

When,  in  January  1767,  Chatham  was  attacked  with 
gout  and  retired  to  Bath,  his  colleagues  never  saw  him 
again ;  and  the  confusion  was  vmexampled  in  modern 
history.  As  Burke  said  long  afterwards  —  "  when  his 
face  was  hid  but  for  a  moment,  his  whole  system  was 
on  a  wide  sea,  without  chart  or  compass."  His  col- 
leagues never  presumed  to  have  an  opinion  of  their 
own.  They  were  whirled  about,  the  sport  of  every 
gust.  They  turned  the  vessel  wholly  out  of  the  course 
of  his  policy.  It  was  thus  that,  using  his  name,  they 
proceeded  to  tax  America.  Lord  Charlemont  wrote 
(9th  April)  — "  Charles  Townshend  is  at  open  war, 
Conway  is  angry,  Lord  Shelburne  out  of  humour,  and 
the  Duke  of  Grafton  by  no  means  pleased.  The  ministry 
is  divided  into  as  many  parties  as  there  are  men  in  it." 

All  this  time  George  kept  writing  friendly  letters 
to  Chatham,  insisting  on  his  remaining  in  ofiice  — 
"  though  confined  to  your  house,  your  name  has  been 
sufl&cient  to  enable  my  administration  to  proceed.  I, 
therefore,  in  the  most  earnest  manner,  call  on  you  to 
continue  in  your  employment"  (the  King  to  Chatham, 
January  23,  1768).  George  could  easily  afford  to  be 
gracious.  He  obtained  the  great  name  of  the  Earl, 
who  could  do  nothing,  who  knew  nothing.  In  the 
meantime,  the  King  was  having  his  own  way,  and 
carrying  on  what  he  naively  called  "  his  administra- 
tion." 

In  the  month  of  January  1768  a  wretched  job 
made  it  necessary  to  set  the  Privy  Seal  to  an  appoint- 


X.]  DEFENCE   OF  IRELAND   AND  INDIA  195 

ment.  As  Chatham  was  incapable  even  of  this  effort, 
three  private  persons  were  named  commissioners  to 
act  for  six  Aveeks.  The  King  and  his  ministers  would 
not  let  their  victim  go.  For  months  things  stagnated 
and  went  to  chaos,  Lady  Chatham  answering  all  appeals 
and  refusing  all  interviews.  At  last,  in  October  1768, 
a  letter  in  her  handwriting  was  sent  to  the  Duke  of 
Grafton  begging  him  to  obtain  the  King's  permission 
to  resign  the  Privy  Seal.  The  Duke  hesitated  and 
pressed  the  Earl  to  remain.  The  King,  almost  losing 
his  temper,  wrote  directly  to  Lord  Chatham  —  "I  think 
I  have  a  right  to  insist  on  your  remaining  in  my  service." 
An  abject  letter,  in  her  ladyship's  hand — aletter  which 
a  Grand  Vizier  might  have  sent  to  Sultan  Amurath  — 
(October  14)  finally  closed  this  melancholy  episode, 
and  brought  to  an  end  the  Chatham  ministry.  It  had 
lasted  nominally  two  years  and  two  months.  It  had 
at  last  found  strength  enough  to  insist  on  dying. 

The  appearance  of  Chatham  on  the  political  field  in 
the  last  years  of  his  life  was  so  irregular  and  spas- 
modic, had  so  little  practical  effect  on  legislation  and 
government,  and  was  itself  so  seldom  continuous,  that 
it  would  be  inconvenient  to  record  it  in  chronological 
order.  It  must  be  grouped  under  a  few  distinct  sub- 
jects ;  and  it  will  be  best  to  collect  his  utterances  and 
schemes  under  the  following  heads :  (1)  the  good 
government  of  Ireland,  of  India,  and  other  parts  of 
the  Empire;  (2)  Constitutional  questions  and  the 
function  of  Parliament;  (3)  the  quarrel  with  the 
American  Colonies,  and  the  formation  of  the  United 
States. 

With  regard  to  Ireland,  the  administration  of  which 


196  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Cliatiiam  was  the  nominal  head,  had  started  in  July 
1766  with  excellent  intentions :  —  the  reform  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  the  independence  of  the  Irish  Judges, 
a  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  the  abolition  of  the  griev- 
ances of  the  monstrous  Pension  list.  In  short,  it  was 
consistently  Chatham's  principle  to  give  Ireland  a 
genuine  Irish  government,  to  make  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment solely  responsible  for  Irish  taxation,  and  to  re- 
quire from  the  Lord-Lieutenant  continuous  residence 
in  Dublin.  The  collapse  of  Chatham's  health,  and  the 
disorganisation  into  which  this  threw  his  colleagues, 
had  prevented  any  of  these  urgent  reforms  being  car- 
ried through. 

Although  Chatham  never  at  any  time  was  able  to 
effect  any  reform  in  Ireland,  we  are  not  left  in  doubt 
about  the  principles  which  he  maintained.  The  very  re- 
markable correspondence  between  him  and  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  in  October  1773,  fully  explains  his  views.  In 
that  year  it  was  proposed  to  put  a  tax  of  two  shillings 
in  the  pound  on  the  net  annual  profits  of  all  land- 
owners in  Ireland  ivlio  should  not  achtally  reside  in  the 
Kingdom  for  six  months  in  each  year.  It  was  hotly 
urged  by  the  English  party  both  there  and  in  Britain 
that  any  such  Bill,  if  carried  in  the  Irish  Parliament, 
should  be  annulled  by  the  Crown.  Lord  Shelburne, 
whose  family  held  great  Irish  estates,  consulted 
Chatham  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued.  Chatham's 
answer  was  emphatic  —  against  any  interference  from 
England.  This  proposal,  he  said,  however  severe 
against  absentees,  is  founded  in  strong  Irish  policy,  to 
compel  more  of  the  product  of  Irish  estates  to  be  spent 
in  Ireland,  and  not  here. 


X.]  DEFENCE   OF  IRELAND  AND   INDIA  197 

*'  England,  it  is  evident,  profits  by  draining  Ireland  of  the 
vast  incomes  spent  here  from  that  country.  But  I  could  not, 
as  an  English  peer,  advise  the  King  on  principles  of  indirect, 
accidental  English  policy,  to  reject  a  tax  on  absentees,  sent 
over  here,  as  the  genuine  desire  of  the  Commons  of  Ireland, 
acting  in  their  proper  and  peculiar  sphere,  and  exercising  their 
inherent,  exclusive  right,  by  raising  supplies  in  the  manner  they 
think  best.  This  great  principle  of  the  Constitution  is  so  funda- 
mental, and  with  me  so  sacred  and  indispensable,  that  it 
outweighs  all  other  considerations." 

Lord  Rockingham  opposed  all  this,  and  pressed 
Shelburne  to  join  him  in  having  the  Bill  disallowed. 
And  Edmund  Burke  vehemently  denounced  the 
Absentee  Tax.  Here  a  second  time  we  find  Burke 
resisting,  and  Chatham  defending,  a  reform  in  the 
interest  of  the  poor  cultivators  of  the  soil.  As  Burke 
had  opposed  Chatham's  attempt  to  check  the  abuses  of 
Indian  "  nabobs,"  so  we  find  him  opposed  to  Chatham's 
view  as  to  taxing  the  Irish  absentees.  The  correspon- 
dence continued ;  and  Shelburne  very  honourably  gave 
way  to  the  superior  wisdom  and  generosity  of  Chatham. 
In  a  second  letter,  Chatham  admitted  that  all  his 
personal  prejudices  were  with  Irish  landowners,  for 
two  of  his  relations  held  considerable  estates.  Never- 
theless, he  continues  — 

"  The  fitness  or  justice  of  the  tax  in  question,  I  shall  not 
consider,  if  the  Commons  of  Ireland  send  it  here."  .  .  .  "The 
line  of  the  Constitution  —  a  line  written  in  the  broadest  letter, 
through  every  page  of  the  history  of  parliament  and  people  — 
tells  me,  that  the  Commons  are  to  judge  of  the  propriety  and 
expediency  of  supplies."  "  This  power  of  the  purse  in  the 
Commons  is  fundamental  and  inherent ;  to  translate  it  from 
them  to  the  King  in  Council,  is  to  annihilate  Parliament." 

In  result,  the  landowners   succeeded  in  having  the 


198  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Bill  thrown  out  in  the  Irish  Parliament;  and  the 
perilous  resort  to  King  George's  fiat  was  not  required. 
But  the  letters  display  how  intensely  Chatham  held  by 
his  doctrine  that  the  taxes  of  the  Irish  people  could 
only  be  voted  by  their  own  representatives  —  in  their 
own  Parliament. 

The  critical  question  of  the  independence  of  the 
National  Parliament  of  Ireland  was  not  decided  until 
long  after  Chatham's  time.  But,  whatever  doubts  he 
may  have  once  had,  he  repeatedly  declared  himself 
to  his  colleague.  Lord  Shelburne,  as  opposed  to  the 
legislative  Union  of  the  Irish  and  British  Parliaments, 
on  the  ground  of  the  bad  effect  it  would  have  on 
the  English  Parliament.  This  Lord  Shelburne  com- 
municated to  Arthur  Young.  The  Irish  Speaker,  when 
resisting  the  Union  in  February  1800,  repeated  that 
Lord  Chatham  had  always  objected  to  the  Union,  lest 
the  additional  members  from  Ireland  might  alter  the 
constitution  of  the  House.  It  is  clear  that  the  people 
of  Ireland  had  felt  at  least  as  much  enthusiasm  for  the 
Liberal  Statesman  as  did  the  people  of  Scotland  and  of 
England.  The  merchants  and  traders  of  Dublin  had 
presented  him  with  an  address  of  admiration  on  his 
retirement  from  office.  And  the  citizens  of  Cork  had 
placed  a  marble  statue  of  him  in  their  Exchange. 

During  Chatham's  own  ministry,  the  urgent  need  of 
reform  in  the  government  of  India  was  ever  in  his 
mind.  He  wrote  from  Bath  to  Lord  Shelburne 
(January  1767)  about  "the  transcendent  object  which 
possesses  my  mind,  the  East  India  business."  But  in 
his  absence,  in  spite  of  constant  exchange  of  letters 
with  Shelburne   and    Townshend,  nothing   effective 


X.]  DEFENCE   OF  IRELAND   AND   INDIA  199 

could  be  done.  In  February  the  Duke  of  Grafton 
wrote  with  an  account  of  a  meeting  of  ministers, 
"  they  were  most  thoroughly  convinced  that  his  pres- 
ence was  absolutely  necessary  to  give  dignity  to  the 
administration  and  to  carry  through  this  affair  (the 
most  important  of  all)  of  the  East  India  Company,  in 
which  they  all  think  that  there  is  no  stirring  without 
your  assistance  and  concurrence."  And  the  Duke 
frankly  adds  that  he  is  ready  to  join  in  any  plan  which 
approved  itself  to  the  great  experience  and  ability  of 
his  chief.  But  nothing  beyond  abortive  attempts  came 
from  this  headless  administration. 

For  years,  as  we  know,  abortive  attempts  were  made 
to  solve  the  problem  of  Indian  Government,  a  problem 
which  wrecked  one  minister  after  another.  Lord 
Chatham  does  not  seem  to  have  spoken  in  the  House 
on  these  questions;  but  in  letters  to  his  colleagues 
from  time  to  time  we  find  what  his  views  and  advice 
had  been.  Colonel  Barre,  who  had  now  become  his 
friend  and  warm  supporter,  asked  Chatham's  opinion  as 
to  the  Bill  promoted  by  the  East  India  Company  to 
enable  them  to  raise  further  military  forces  (February 
1771).  Other  friends  asked  for  his  views.  Chatham 
replies  (21st  February  1771) :  — 

"  As  to  the  East  India  Company's  Bill  for  recruiting,  I 
disapprove  it  absolutely.  I  have  seen  regalities  taken  away 
by  Act  of  Parliament;  and  shall  not  concur  in  an  Act  to 
attribute  sovereign  power  in  England  to  Leadenhall  Street. 
I  think  the  attempt  daring,  and  the  power  preposterous : 
out  of  all  line  of  the  Constitution." 

When,  in  1772  and  1773,  public  opinion  forced  the 
government  of  Lord  North  to  carry  through  the  India 


200  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Acts  designed  to  stop  the  worst  enormities  of  the 
Company's  Raj  and  to  transfer  their  irresponsible 
power  to  a  body  representing  the  State  at  home, 
Chatham  was  unable  to  take  part  in  debate,  but  we 
find  him  at  every  point  warmly  supporting  the  Reforms. 
The  Report  of  the  Secret  Committee  of  December 
1772,  on  which  the  government  action  was  based,  met 
with  Chatham's  hearty  approval :  — 

"  I  am  much  edified  with  it.  As  far  as  it  has  gone,  I 
like  the  spirit  of  it  well ;  as  it  does  '  nothing  extenuate,  nor 
set  down  aught  in  malice.' 

"  Trade  in  India,  internal  and  external,  stands  at  present 
on  little  else  than  the  guns  of  our  ships  and  fortresses :  a 
forced  foundation  which  will  fail,  if  not  timely  strengthened 
by  a  system  of  justice  and  humanity,  of  sounder  and  larger 
policy." 

When  the  Acts  of  1773  came  on  for  debate,  Chatham 
from  his  retreat  in  Somersetshire  warmly  applauded 
the  efforts  of  Colonel  Bar  re,  who  took  the  lead  in 
arguing  the  case  with  what  Chatham  writes  to 
Shelburne  was  a  "  noble  and  universally  applauded 
speech  on  India."  The  case  of  the  Company  and 
their  "  vested  interests  "  in  extortion,  oppression,  and 
fraud,  was  maintained  by  Edmund  Burke,  who  took 
the  lead  on  the  side  of  opposition.  Strange  destiny, 
which  for  the  third  time  found  Burke  the  passionate 
advocate  of  Property  and  Reaction,  whilst  Chatham 
was  a  stout  champion  of  the  People  and  of  Reform ! 
There  was  some  strange  antipathy  between  these  two 
men  —  the  finest  brains  and  natures  of  their  time. 
Both  were  high-minded,  profound  in  insight,  generous, 
with  passionate  imagination.    Burke  was  a  philosopher, 


X.]  DEFENCE  OF  IRELAND  AND  INDIA  201 

a  man  of  letters,  an  idealist,  and  a  born  Conservative. 
Chatham  was  a  man  of  action  with  a  genius  for 
efficiency,  a  popular  tribune,  but  a  born  ruler  of  men. 
In  May  1773,  Chatham  again  pressed  on  Shelburne 
that  "  Indian  affairs  are  in  a  most  interesting  crisis ; 
nor  can  any  public  object  be  more  important  to  the 
honour  and  welfare  of  the  nation."  The  government, 
with  a  majority  in  both  Houses,  were  carrying  their 
Bill  to  limit  the  irresponsible  liberty  of  the  Company, 
whose  vested  interests  under  charter  were  being 
passionately  defended  by  the  Kockingham  party  and 
the  "  nabob  "  ring.  As  to  the  claim  of  the  Company 
to  the  entire  revenue  that  could  be  squeezed  out  of  the 
natives,  Chatham  writes  :  — 

"Dividends  are  in  their  nature  strictly  limited  to  the 
profits  of  trade ;  anything  more  is  undue,  and  an  imposition 
and  defrauding  of  the  public  services.  Inland  trade  ex- 
clusive of  the  natives  is  the  rankest  and  most  odious 
oppression  to  be  abolished  for  ever.  This,  together  with 
the  want  of  justice  in  judicature,  has  lost  us  the  favourable 
dispositions  of  Hindostan.  Justice  should  be  solidly  estab- 
lished under  independent  judges,  holding  their  offices  as  the 
judges  here,  removable  only  by  Address  of  Parliament,  and 
under  severest  penalties  if  they  meddle  in  trade." 

This  was  directed  against  the  monstrous  system 
under  which  the  officials  of  the  Company  claimed 
complete  monopoly  of  the  inland  trade  of  the  Pen- 
insula, fixing  themselves  the  prices  at  which  they 
chose  both  to  buy  and  sell. 

Well  might  Lord  Shelburne  write  to  Chatham  that 
"  the  crimes  and  frauds  of  the  servants  in  India,  enor- 
mous as  they  appear  in  the  Reports,  are  not  yet  fully 
stated.     The  Directors,  occupied  in  domestic  pursuits 


202  CHATHAM 


I^CHAP. 


equally  fraudulent,  have  produced  the  effect  of  accom 
plices  throughout ;  while  the  proprietors  who,  as  the 
last  resort,  ought  to  be  the  purest  to  the  objects  of  their 
charter,  appear  the  most  servile  instruments  of  both." 
To  this  Chatham  replies  :  — 

"India  teems  with  iniquities  so  rank,  as  to  smell  to 
heaven  and  earth.  The  reformation  of  them,  if  pursued  in 
a  pure  spirit  of  justice,  might  exalt  the  nation,  and  endear 
the  English  name  throughout  the  world ;  but  the  generous 
purpose  is  no  sooner  conceived  in  the  hearts  of  the  few,  but 
by-ends  and  sinister  interests  taint  the  execution,  and  power 
is  grasped  at,  where  redress  should  be  the  only  object. 

"  The  putting  under  circumscription  and  control  the  high 
and  dangei'ous  prerogatives  of  war  and  alliances,  so  abused 
in  India,  I  cannot  but  approve,  as  it  shuts  the  door  against 
insatiable  rapine  and  detestable  enormities,  as  have,  on 
some  occasions,  stained  the  English  name,  and  disgraced 
human  nature.  I  approve,  too,  of  the  nomination  of  judges 
by  the  Crown  ;  but  as  they  are  to  hold  their  offices  during 
pleasure,  I  cannot  consider  them  as  judges,  but  as  dependent 
instruments  of  power. 

"  The  abolition  of  inland  trade  on  private  accounts  is 
highly  laudable,  as  far  as  that  provision  goes;  but  I  would 
assuredly  carry  the  prohibition  further,  and  open  again  to 
the  natives  and  other  Eastern  merchants  the  inland  trade 
of  Bengal,  and  abolish  all  monopolies  on  the  Company's 
account ;  which  now  operate  to  the  unjust  exclusion  of  an 
oppressed  people,  and  to  the  impoverishing  and  alienating 
of  these  extensive  and  populous  provinces.  The  hearts  and 
good  affections  of  Bengal  are  of  more  ivorth  than  all  the  profits 
of  ruinous  and  odious  monopolies." 

In  the  summer  of  17G9,  the  town  was  startled,  and 
all  the  political  quidnuncs  were  set  in  motion  by  the 
unexpected  appearance  of  Chatham  at  the  King's 
Levee,  and  an  interview  between  them  afterwards  in 
the  closet.     It  had  come  about  in  this  way.     In  the 


X.]  DEFENCE   OF  IRELAND  AND  INDIA  203 

autumn  of  the  preceding  year,  Chatham  had  another 
severe  attack  of  gout,  and  a  second  in  the  following 
spring.  This  seemed  to  clear  his  brain  and  restore 
his  nerves.  He  became  reconciled  to  Lord  Temple, 
who  visited  him  at  Hayes,  and  effusively  had  the  visit 
recorded  as  "  a  most  cordial,  firm,  and  perpetual  union, 
to  which  Mr.  Grenville  has  heartily  acceded."  The 
invalid  had  shaken  off  his  gloom,  and  after  two  years 
and  a  half,  he  not  only  came  up  to  London,  but  he 
attended  the  Levee.  The  circumstance  must  be  told 
in  the  inimitable  language  of  Horace  Walpole. 

"  Lord  Chatham  appeared  at  the  King's  Levee  when 
it  was  thought  he  would  never  produce  himself  again, 
or  was  not  fit  to  be  produced  in  public.  He  was 
perfectly  well,  and  had  grown  fat.  The  Duke  of 
Grafton  had  just  time  to  apprise  the  King  of  this 
mysterious  visit.  The  King  was  very  gracious,  and 
whispered  him  to  come  into  the  closet  after  the  levee, 
which  he  did,  and  stayed  there  twenty  minutes." 
And  then  the  lively  diarist  pours  forth  the  gossip  of 
the  day  with  all  its  suspicions  and  rumours.  Had  the 
ex-minister,  who  seemed  to  have  risen  from  the  dead 
to  overthrow  all  the  combinations  of  the  day,  and 
to  make  new,  come  to  consult  with  the  King  about 
the  Middlesex  election  of  Wilkes,  or  had  he  come  to 
claim  power  for  himself  ?  Had  he  been  sent  for,  or 
did  he  come  up  of  his  own  accord  ?  Why  was  he  so 
cold  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton  and  the  Duke  of  Bedford  ? 
Why  so  friendly  to  Lord  Grauby  and  General  Harvey  ? 
And  was  Lord  Temple  in  the  game  ?  and  so  forth,  as 
Chatham  lingered  after  the  audience,  as  if  to  convince 
the  Court  that  he  had  recovered  his  health  and  under- 
standing, 


204  CHATHAM  [chap. 

He  had  indeed  fluttered  the  Volscians  at  St.  James's. 
Lord  Mansfield  had  hoped  the  ministry  could  hold  on, 
"if  that  madman  Chatham  did  not  come  to  throw  a 
fire-ball  amongst  them  ?  "  Had  he  thrown  it  ?  Burke 
wondered  if  he  had  only  come  to  talk  some  "creeping, 
explanatory,  ambiguous  matter  in  the  true  Chathamic 
style."  Explanatory  perhaps  ;  but  was  Chatham  often 
ambiguous,  was  he  ever  creeping  f  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
Chatham  now  felt  himself  restored  to  health  and  life, 
and  resolved  to  show  the  King  and  the  world  that 
he  was.  We  now  know  exactly  what  had  been 
Chatham's  purpose,  and  what  he  said.  Nothing  could 
be  simpler  and  more  straightforward.  The  Duke  of 
Grafton  wrote  a  minute  at  the  time  of  what  had 
passed,  evidently  from  the  King's  own  words. 

George  was  gracious,  regretted  that  illness  had 
caused  the  Earl's  resignation.  Chatham  replied  that 
he  could  not  continue  to  serve  when  unable  to  approve 
what  he  thought  good,  or  dissent  from  what  he  thought 
bad.  He  thought  this  recent  case  (Wilkes's)  had  been 
mismanaged.  It  ought  to  have  been  treated  with 
contempt  from  the  first.  And  he  was  not  satisfied 
with  what  had  been  done  as  to  Indian  government, 
and  the  powers  left  with  the  Company.  He  did  not 
think  his  health  would  ever  allow  him  again  to  attend 
in  Parliament.  If  it  did,  and  he  should  dissent  from 
any  measure  proposed,  he  hoped  his  Majesty  would 
believe  that  it  did  not  arise  from  any  personal  con- 
sideration, as  he  had  not  a  tittle  to  find  fault  with 
in  the  conduct  of  any  individual.  "  His  Majesty 
might  be  assured  that  it  could  not  arise  from  ambition, 
as  he  felt  so  strongly  the  weak  state  from  which  he 


X.]  DEFENCE   OP   IRELAND  AND   INDIA  205 

was  recovering,  and  which  might  daily  threaten  him, 
that  office  therefore  of  any  sort  could  no  longer  be 
desirable  to  him." 

From  this  hour  Chatham  neither  held  nor  sought 
any  office,  nor  did  he  ever  see  the  King  again.  The 
history  of  England  might  have  been  different,  if 
George  could  have  honestly  trusted  the  sincere  words 
in  which  his  proud  servant  took  his  last  farewell. 


CHAPTER  XI 

DEFENCE    OF   THE   CONSTITUTION" 

Chatham  was  by  fixed  principle  a  Whig  of  the  old 
school,  a  firm  believer  in  the  Settlement  of  1689, 
albeit  alien  to  any  particular  Whig  "connection." 
His  whole  conception  of  politics  was  the  efficient  rule 
of  a  trained  statesman,  implicitly  trusted  by  a  free 
Parliament.  Thus  it  came  about  that,  when  not  in 
power  himself,  he  was  in  continual  opposition  to 
forces  which  he  scorned,  but  could  not  control  —  a 
venal  and  servile  House  of  Commons;  a  House  of 
Peers  divided  into  rival  "  factions  " ;  a  King  and  his 
Court,  successfully  intriguing  so  as  to  manipulate  both. 
Chatham's  splendid  efforts  to  bridle  Prerogative,  to 
guide  Parliament,  and  to  stir  the  conscience  of  the 
nation,  met  with  no  success,  but  they  left  a  great 
inheritance  to  those  who  came  after  him. 

On  the  first  occasion  of  his  return  to  Parliament, 
Chatham  poured  out  his  passionate  sense  of  constitu- 
tional right  with  even  more  than  his  usual  violence 
of  language. 

"  My  Lords,  I  need  not  look  abroad  for  grievances.  The 
great  capital  mischief  is  fixed  at  home.  It  corrupts  the  very 
foundation  of   our  political  existence,  and  preys  upon  the 

206 


CHAP.  XI.]    DEFENCE    OF  THE   CONSTITUTION  207 

vitals  of  the  State.  The  Constitution  at  this  moment  stands 
violated.  Until  that  wound  be  healed,  until  the  grievance 
be  redressed,  it  is  in  vain  to  recommend  union  to  Parliament, 
in  vain  to  promote  concord  among  the  people.  If  we  mean 
seriously  to  unite  the  nation  within  itself,  we  must  convince 
them  that  their  complaints  are  regarded,  that  their  injuries 
shall  be  redressed.  On  that  foundation,  I  would  take  the  lead 
in  recommending  peace  and  harmony  to  the  people.  On  any 
other,  I  would  never  wish  to  see  them  united  again.  If  the 
breach  in  the  Constitution  be  effectually  repaired,  the  people 
will  of  themselves  return  to  a  state  of  tranquillity.  If  not  — 
may  discord  prevail  for  ever  1 " 

The  orator  went  on,  apparently  losing  control  of 
his  tongue,  to  the  effect  that  if  the  King's  servants 
would  not  permit  a  constitutional  question  to  be 
decided  by  the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  then, 
old  as  he  was,  he  hoped  to  see  the  issue  fairly  tried 
between  the  people  and  the  government.  When  the 
liberty  of  the  subject  was  invaded,  without  redress, 
resistance  was  justified.  ''The  Constitution  has  its 
political  Bible,  by  which,  if  it  be  fairly  consulted, 
every  political  question  may,  and  ought  to  be  deter- 
mined. Magna  Charta,  the  Petition  of  Rights,  and 
the  Bill  of  Rights,  form  that  code  which  I  call  Tlie 
Bible  of  the  English  Constitution.  Had  some  of  his 
Majesty's  unhappy  predecessors  trusted  less  to  the 
comments  of  their  ministers,  had  they  been  better 
read  in  the  text  itself,  the  glorious  Revolution  would 
have  remained  only  possible  in  theory,  and  would  not 
now  have  existed  upon  record,  a  formidable  example 
to  their  successors."  If  Walpole  said  truly,  "it  was 
not  his  style  to  be  harsh  in  the  closet,"  his  style  was 
outspoken  enough  in  the  Lords. 

In  the  same  speech  Chatham  went  on  to  expound 


208  CHATHAM  [chap. 

his  view  of  a  Eeform  of  Parliament.  The  boroughs, 
he  said,  had  been  called  the  rotten  parts  of  the 
Constitution.  Corrupt  as  they  are,  they  must  be 
considered  as  the  natural  infirmity  of  the  Constitution. 
He  was  not  prepared  to  abolish  them.  The  limb  was 
mortified,  but  amputation  might  be  death  [the  orator 
forgot  that  to  leave  the  mortified  limb  would  be 
equally  death].  His  plan  was  to  increase  the  county 
representation,  which  was  still  pure  and  uncorrupted. 
He  urged  the  increase  of  another  member  to  each 
county,  both  in  England  and  in  Scotland.  He  thought 
that  increase  would  be  "  the  only  security  against 
the  profligacy  of  the  times,  the  corruption  of  the 
people,  and  the  ambition  of  the  Crown."  How  utterly 
inadequate  this  reform  would  prove,  in  the  immense 
preponderance  over  counties  and  large  towns  of  the 
rotten  boroughs,  we  know  now.  But  it  was  sixty 
years  before  the  nation  succeeded  in  carrying  any 
reform  at  all. 

Over  and  over  again  Chatham  perorated  in  the 
Peers  about  the  discontents  in  the  nation,  the  irrita- 
tion produced  by  the  conduct  of  the  ministers  of  the 
Crown,  and  of  the  "  influence  behind  the  Crown,"  in 
which  he  insisted  on  believing.  His  doctrine  was 
that  manifest  discontent  in  the  nation  was  sufi&cient 
ground  for  urgent  action,  that  the  Peers  were  the 
hereditary  advisers  of  the  Crown,  that  it  was  a 
pressing  crisis  which  called  them  to  be  united,  and  to 
make  their  common  counsel  reach  the  throne,  in  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  the  open  and  the  concealed  evil 
counsellors  at  Court. 

"  It  was  the  duty  of  that  House  to  inquire  into  the  causes 


XI.]  DEFENCE   OF  THE   CONSTITUTION  209 

of  that  notorious  dissatisfaction  expressed  by  the  whole 
English  nation,  to  state  these  causes  to  their  Sovereign,  and 
then  to  give  him  their  best  advice  in  what  manner  he  ought 
to  act.  Tlie  privileges  of  the  House  of  Peers,  however  trans- 
cendent, however  appropriated  to  them,  stood,  in  fact,  upon 
the  broad  bottom  of  the  people." 

"...  Let  us  be  cautious  how  we  admit  an  idea  that  our 
rights  stand  on  a  footing  different  from  those  of  the  people. 
Let  us  be  cautious  how  ice  invade  the  liberties  of  our  felloio- 
subjects,  however  near,  however  remote:  for  be  assured,  my 
Lords,  that  in  whatever  part  of  the  Empire  you  suffer  slavery  to 
he  established,  whether  it  be  in  America,  or  in  Ireland,  or  here 
at  home,  you  ivill  find  it  a  disease  which  spreads  by  contact,  and 
soon  reaches  from  the  extremities  to  the  heart.  The  man  who 
has  lost  his  own  freedom  becomes  from  that  moment  an 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  an  ambitious  prince,  to  destroy 
the  freedom  of  others.  The  liberty  of  the  subject  is  invaded 
not  only  in  provinces,  but  here  at  home.  The  English  people 
are  loud  in  their  complaints,  they  complain  with  one  voice 
the  injuries  they  have  received  ;  they  demand  redress,  and 
depend  upon  it,  my  Lords,  that  one  way  or  other  they  will 
have  redress.  They  will  never  return  to  a  state  of  tranquillity 
until  they  are  redressed;  nor  ought  they;  for  in  my  judg- 
ment, my  Lords,  and  I  speak  it  boldly,  it  were  better  for  them 
to  perish  in  a  glorious  contention  for  their  rights,  than  to 
purchase  a  slavish  tranquillity  at  the  expense  of  a  single  iota 
of  the  Constitution." 

How  radically  different  was  all  this,  both  in  substance 
and  in  form,  from  the  language  of  Walpole,  or  of 
Burke,  or  even  of  Charles  Fox.  It  was  the  language 
of  Pym,  of  Somers,  of  Russell,  of  Brougham,  and  of 
Bright.  It  was  in  this  that  Chatham  was  the  precursor 
of  the  advanced  reformers  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
as  he  was  the  heir  of  the  revolutionist  leaders  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Chatham  was  a  real,  and  not  a 
pinchbeck.  Imperialist,  as  he  was,  I  think,  the  first  to 


210  CHATHAM  [chap. 

use  habitually  the  term  Empirera  its  true  sense.  To  him, 
all  men  within  the  dominions  of  the  Crown,  of  what- 
ever colour  and  under  whatever  sun,  were  subjects  of 
the  King,  and  equally  entitled  to  freedom.  To  him 
oppression,  injustice,  and  violation  of  law,  wherever 
done,  were  wrongs  done  to  the  nation  as  a  whole, 
outrages  which  put  their  own  liberties  in  peril.  To 
him,  good  government  and  justice  were  paramount 
needs  for  every  citizen,  whether  they  were  threatened 
in  Ireland,  in  Scotland,  in  England,  in  America,  or  in 
India.  Chatham  never  countenanced  the  view  that 
''  Empire "  meant  small  colonies  of  white  settlers, 
holding  in  serfdom  vast  masses  of  some  inferior 
race. 

It  was  this  conception  of  the  solidarity  of  interests, 
as  we  might  now  say,  which  caused  him  to  fling  him- 
self with  such  energy  and  with  such  persistence  into 
the  miserable  series  of  squabbles  about  Wilkes  and 
the  Middlesex  election.  Chatham  loathed  and  despised 
Wilkes  as  a  man  and  as  an  agitator,  and  he  always 
haughtily  refused  to  interfere  in  any  election.  But  in 
the  matter  of  Wilkes  being  incapacitated  for  election 
by  resolution  of  one  House — the  Commons  declaring 
elected  a  candidate  whom  the  electors  had  rejected  — 
Chatham  saw  an  illegal  and  unconstitutional  attack  on 
the  rights  of  every  elector  in  the  kingdom.  And  on 
behalf  of  the  principle  of  free  representation  of  the 
people,  he  vehemently  and  persistently  repudiated 
the  action  of  the  servile  House  of  Commons  under  the 
influence  of  an  arrogant  King  and  his  creatures.  There 
can  be  no  use  in  going  into  the  details  of  the  trumpery 
Middlesex  election  debates.     Chatham   from  first  to 


XI.]  DEFENCE   OF  THE   CONSTITUTION  211 

last  upheld  common  sense,  law,  and  wise  policy.  His 
view  of  the  constitutional  questions  was  entirely  sound, 
was  soon  afterwards  accepted  by  both  parties,  and  is 
now  settled  law.  In  maintaining  it,  he  confronted 
and  overwhelmed  not  only  the  feeble  spokesmen  of 
the  Court  and  the  Government,  sundry  able  and 
irresolute  peers,  but  the  weighty  learning  of  Lord 
Mansfield  himself.  Mansfield  was  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  most  consummate  lawyers  in  our  history,  as  well 
as  one  of  the  subtlest  and  most  persuasive  logicians. 
But  he  was  a  coward,  given  to  intrigue,  always  the 
advocate,  and  never  the  statesman.  When  Chatham 
denounced  the  act  of  the  Commons  in  attempting  to 
incapacitate  Wilkes  from  being  elected,  and  moved  an 
amendment  in  the  Lords  to  declare  that  they  thereby 
"deprived  the  electors  of  Middlesex  of  their  free 
choice  of  a  representative,"  Mansfield  made  a  powerful 
reply.  From  the  point  of  view  of  strict  constitutional 
law,  Mansfield  was  right ;  and  his  speech  is  a  classical 
exposition  of  the  doctrine.  He  spoke  as  a  judge  rather 
than  a  peer.  He  insisted  that  the  House  of  Commons 
had  done  illegal  things  in  the  matter  of  general 
warrants,  which  the  judges  could  and  did  redress.  In 
the  matter  of  expelling  Wilkes,  in  rejecting  Wilkes's 
re-election  to  Middlesex,  whether  they  had  acted  Avith 
wisdom,  or  indiscretion  —  and  on  this  he,  Mansfield, 
would  never  express  what  he  thought  as  a  peer  —  there 
was  no  court  of  law  which  could  decide  the  question  ; 
much  less  could  the  House  of  Lords  decide  it.  Both 
Houses  were  the  sole  courts  of  justice  for  their  own 
rules  and  resolutions.  Eight  or  wrong,  it  was  not  for 
the  other  House  to  correct  them. 


212  CHATHAM  [chap. 

In  all  this,  Mansfield  spoke  as  the  great  lawyer  he 
was.  It  was  no  doubt  irregular,  and  perhaps  impolitic 
at  the  moment,  for  Chatham  to  raise  a  formal  amend- 
ment with  Wilkes's  name  in  it,  and  to  force  a  division 
in  the  Lords.  Mansfield  and  the  large  majority  of  the 
House  were  technically  right  in  refusing  to  bring  their 
own  House  of  Peers  into  direct  collision  with  the 
House  of  Commons.  But  it  would  be  pedantic  to  regret 
that  Chatham  should  have  used  the  opportunity  of 
his  seat  among  the  Peers  to  express  in  noble  and 
passionate  words  the  folly,  the  lawlessness,  and  the 
servility  of  the  Commons  in  truckling  to  the  Court. 
And  in  the  Commons  itself  Lord  Granby,  Sir  George 
Savile,  and  Burke  used  the  same  language  as  Chatham 
and  Camden,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  had  used  in  the 
Lords.  Walpole  once  wrote :  "  When  Lord  Mansfield 
was  silent,  as  his  fears  now  made  him,  Chatham  was 
far  superior  to  all  his  other  adversaries;  they  were 
babies  to  himJ' 

In  this  debate  of  3rd  January  1770,  Chatham  pro- 
mised his  hearty  co-operation  with  Lord  Rockingham. 
Whatever  there  had  been  in  the  past,  "  cordial  union," 
he  said,  was  now  "  indissoluble  "  —  not  in  order  to  share 
the  sweets  of  ofl&ce,  but  to  save  the  State.  Would  that 
it  could  have  been  maintained!  Lord  Rockingham 
and  his  friends  were  honest,  just,  sensible  men,  guided 
by  one  man  of  splendid  genius.  Rockingham  himself 
was  over-cautious,  inarticulate,  proud,  reserved,  and 
commonplace.  Shelburne,  the  ablest  of  Chatham's 
friends,  was  deeply  distrusted  as  self-interested,  dis- 
loyal, and  insincere.  Burke,  with  all  his  genius,  was, 
and  felt  himself  to  be,  a  follower,  not  a  leader ;  he  was 


XI.]  DEFENCE   OF  THE   CONSTITUTION  213 

satirical,  touchy,  jealous;  too  subtle  and  doctrinaire 
for  a  great  statesman.  Chatham  was  an  effervescent 
man  of  action,  magnanimous  and  profoundly  clear- 
visioned,  but  fiercely  impatient  of  the  moderation  and 
niceties  of  the  theorists.  In  the  result  Chatham, 
Rockingham,  Shelburne,  and  Burke  sought  the  same 
ends  in  somewhat  similar  ways ;  but  they  failed  to 
form  an  "  indissoluble  union,"  and  too  often  suspected 
and  thwarted  each  other. 

Time  after  time  Chatham  returned  to  the  struggle 
over  the  Middlesex  election.  He  supported  George 
Grenville's  Bill  for  trying  controverted  elections.  In 
May  1770,  he  brought  in  a  Bill  ''  for  reversing  the 
adjudications  of  the  House  of  Commons  "  in  the  case 
of  Wilkes  and  Colonel  Luttrell.  It  is  obvious  that 
such  a  Bill,  suggested  to  him  by  Lord  Mansfield, 
perhaps  in  derision,  was  hrutum  fulmen,  except  as  it 
enabled  Chatham  to  make  a  great  speech.  And  a 
great  and  fierce  speech  he  made.  "A  corrupt  House 
of  Commons  invert  all  law  and  order."  "  A  majority 
in  that  House  becomes  a  minister's  state-engine,  to 
effect  the  worst  of  purposes,  and  to  produce  such 
monstrous  and  unconstitutional  acts,  one  cannot  help 
exclaiming  in  the  language  of  Shakespeare  — 

"  '  Fie  on  it  !    Oh  fie  ! 

'Tis  an  un weeded  garden,  things 

Rank  and  gross  in  nature  possess  it  merely.' " 

He  hoped  his  Majesty  would  soon  open  his  eyes. 
"  He  esteemed  the  King  in  his  personal  capacity,  and 
he  revered  him  in  his  political  one."  Four  days  after- 
wards, he  moved  again  that  the  advice  given  to  his 


214  CHATHAM  [chap. 

Majesty  (-when  he  answered  the  address  of  the  City  of 
London)  was  "of  a  most  dangerous  tendency."  Ten 
days  later  he  moved  an  address  to  the  Throne  to 
dissolve  Parliament.  As  might  have  been  foreseen, 
all  of  these  motions  were  negatived  by  large  majorities. 

"  Purity  of  Parliament  is  the  corner-stone  in  the 
commonwealth "  ;  to  secure  it  was  needed  "  a  more 
full  and  equal  representation,"  was  the  keynote  of 
Chatham's  reply  to  the  City  of  London's  address,  as  it 
was  of  his  own  conduct  in  Parliament.  Again,  in 
November  in  the  same  year,  1770,  he  returned  to 
the  Middlesex  election  in  a  fresh  attack  on  Lord 
Mansfield,  whose  direction  to  the  Jury  in  the  famous 
libel  case  of  printing  Junius's  35th  Letter,  To  the 
King,  Chatham  challenged.  Mansfield's  ruling  was 
upheld  by  the  judges,  but  met  with  violent  criticism 
and  public  indignation  until  the  point  was  settled  by 
Fox's  Libel  Act  in  1792,  which  declared  that  juries 
were  entitled  to  bring  in  a  general  verdict  of  "  guilty  " 
or  "  not  guilty  "  upon  the  whole  question  submitted  to 
them.  Thus  after  twenty-two  years  this  famous 
controversy  was  settled  by  legislation,  in  the  sense 
which  Chatham  had  vainly  struggled  to  maintain 
against  the  lawyers  of  his  age. 

Again  he  called  for  a  dissolution,  an  appeal  to  the 
nation  to  decide  the  right,  if  one  branch  of  the 
legislature  could  usurp  the  power  to  invade  the  liberty 
of  the  subject.  The  House  of  Commons,  he  said,  had 
become  odious  to  the  present  age,  and  their  memory 
would  be  detested  by  posterity.  He  inveighed  against 
the  practice  of  modern  judges  to  reserve  to  the  bench 
the  exclusive  right  to  decide  what  constituted  a  Uhel. 


XI.]  DEFENCE   OF  THE   CONSTITUTION  216 

"The  matter  of  libel  —  of  public  libel  —  was  generally  a 
political  matter ;  and  the  question,  whether  a  paper 
was  a  libel  or  not,  was  not  a  question  of  laio,  but  a 
question  oi  ])olitics,  in  which  ministers  indulged  their 
passion  of  revenge,  and  the  courts  of  law  became  their 
instruments  of  gratification."  Mansfield  made  a  feeble 
and  dilatory  plea,  in  effect  declined  to  reply.  And  in 
December,  Chatham  followed  up  the  attack  with  even 
greater  personal  bitterness. 

He  now  challenged  the  course  taken  by  Lord 
Mansfield  in  the  trial,  boldly  affirming  that  in  his 
decision  he  had  gone  out  of  his  legal  limits,  and  had 
travelled  out  of  the  record,  by  introducing  statements 
which  he  volunteered  to  give,  but  which  were  not 
properly  in  evidence.  Chatham  declared  that  "the 
conduct  of  the  noble  judge  was  irregular,  extrajudicial, 
and  unprecedented"  —  nay  more,  that  his  real  motive 
for  doing  what  he  knew  to  be  wrong  was  to  take  the 
opportunity  of  telling  the  public  extrajudicially  that 
three  other  judges  agreed  with  him  in  the  doctrine  he 
had  laid  down.  Whether  Lord  Mansfield  could  have 
successfully  repelled  this  fierce  attack,  he  made  no 
attempt  to  do  so,  and  Chatham's  friends  and  Junius 
asserted  that  he  was  cowed  and  conscious  of  wrong. 
A  furious  pamphlet  duel  was  waged  between  Nerva 
for  Mansfield  and  Phalaris  for  Chatham. 

In  the  following  year,  when  the  foolish  government 
of  Lord  North,  with  his  servile  majority  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  were  dragged  into  their  futile  struggle 
with  the  printers  of  their  debates,  and  then  with  the 
City  of  London ;  and  had  committed  to  the  Tower  the 
Lord  Mayor,  Brass  Crosby,  and  Alderman  Oliver,  on 


216  CHATHAM  [chap. 

the  question  of  privilege,  Chatham  again  returned 
to  the  charge.  The  report  of  his  speech  runs 
thus : — 

"  He  entered  largely  into  the  consideration  of  the  state  of 
the  country ;  the  depraved  system  of  government,  which  had, 
in  a  very  few  years,  reduced  us  from  a  most  flourishing  to  a 
most  miserable  condition.  He  went  through  the  whole  pro- 
ceedings of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  late  business  of  the 
Printers,  and  arraigned  every  part  of  it  in  the  strongest  terms. 
He  warmly  defended  the  City  magistrates  in  the  conscientious 
discharge  of  their  duty,  for  the  House,  in  committing  them  to 
prison  without  hearing  their  defence  on  the  question  of  privi- 
lege, had  been  guilty  of  a  gross  and  palpable  act  of  tyranny ; 
that  they  had  heard  the  prostituted  electors  of  Shoreham  in 
defence  of  an  agreement  to  sell  a  borough  by  auction,  and 
had  refused  to  hear  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in  defence  of 
the  laws  of  England;  that  their  expunging,  by  force,  the 
entry  of  a  recognizance,  was  the  act  of  a  moh,  not  of  a  Parlia- 
ment; that  their  daring  to  assume  a  power  of  stopping  all 
prosecutions  by  their  vote,  struck  at  once  at  the  whole  system 
of  the  laws ;  that  it  was  solely  to  the  measures  of  the  govern- 
ment, equally  violent  and  absurd,  that  Mr.  Wilkes  owed  all 
his  importance ;  that  the  King's  ministers,  supported  by  the 
slavish  concurrence  of  the  House  of  Commons,  had  made  him 
a  person  of  the  greatest  consequence  in  the  kingdom ;  that  they 
had  made  him  an  Alderman  of  the  City  of  London,  and 
representative  of  the  County  of  Middlesex ;  and  now  they  will 
make  him  Sheriff,  and  in  due  course.  Lord  Mayor  of  London ; 
that  the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  regard  to 
this  gentleman,  made  the  very  name  of  Parliament  ridicu- 
lous." "  To  save  the  institution  fi'om  contempt,  this  House 
must  be  dissolved.  To  resist  the  enormous  influence  of  the 
Crown,  some  stronger  barriers  must  be  erected."  And  he  now 
declared  himself  a  convert  to  triennial  Parliaments  — which  till 
now  he  had  opposed.  In  May  1771,  he  moved  an  address  to 
the  King  to  dissolve  Parliament  "  to  compose  "  this  alarming 
warfare,  which  may  endanger  the  Constitution  and  tend  to 
shake  the  tranquillity  of  the  kingdom. 


XI.]  DEFENCE   OF   THE   CONSTITUTION  217 

This  motion,  like  all  the  others,  was  promptly 
negatived,  and  came  to  nothing.  But  every  word  he 
had  uttered  was  true.  Every  principle  he  affirmed  has 
been  accepted  and  is  now  the  law  and  practice  of  the 
Constitution.  Chatham  in  this,  as  in  so  many  things, 
was  two  or  three  generations  before  his  age.  His 
forecasts  were  somewhat  premature,  however  just  and 
wise.  He  told  Lord  Buchan  —  "  before  the  end  of  this 
century,  either  the  Parliament  will  reform  itself  from 
within,  or  be  reformed  with  a  vengeance  from  with- 
out." It  would  be  an  error  to  belittle  the  importance 
of  this  famous  brav\^l,  owing  to  the  vile  character  of 
Wilkes  or  the  ineptitude  of  the  King  and  his  creatures. 
It  was  really  the  birth  of  the  freedom  of  the  Press  and 
tho  influence  of  political  criticism  on  the  conduct  of 
government. 

At  every  point  Chatham  strove  to  resist  the  growing 
prerogative  of  the  Crown  and  the  increasing  degrada- 
tion of  the  Commons.  As  to  the  "  Nabobs  "  he  cried 
out  —  "  the  riches  of  Asia  have  been  poured  in  upon 
us,  and  have  brought  with  them  not  only  Asiatic 
luxury,  but  Asiatic  principles  of  government.  With- 
out connections,  without  any  natural  interest  in  the 
soil,  the  importers  of  foreign  gold  have  forced  their 
way  into  Parliament,  by  such  a  torrent  of  private 
corruption,  as  no  private  hereditary  fortune  can  re- 
sist." He  persisted  in  affirming  the  secret  influence 
of  Lord  Bute,  though  the  quondam  Favourite  was 
then  abroad.  And  when  the  Duke  of  Grafton  told 
him  that  these  suspicions  were  "  the  effects  of  a  dis- 
tempered mind  brooding  over  its  own  discontents," 
he  angrily  retorted  that  his  disease  had  never  inca- 


218  CHATHAM  [chap. 

pacitated  him  so  as  to  forsake  his  principles.  This 
was  no  doubt  true:  the  quarrel  was  a  melancholy 
outburst  on  both  sides.  Chatham,  nominally  First 
Minister,  found,  on  recovering  his  health,  that  the 
ministry  under  the  feeble  or  indolent  leading  of 
Grafton,  had  allowed  all  the  measures  decided  on 
before  his  retirement  to  be  not  only  neglected  but 
reversed.  Chatham  in  his  wrath  suspected  that 
Grafton  had  been  in  collusion  with  Bute.  The  truth 
was  this.  Bute  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Grafton 
was  not  in  collusion  with  any  one  ;  but  he  was  un- 
stable, easy,  and  inert.  The  only  secret  influence  was 
that  of  George  himself,  whose  grasping  and  dogged 
nature  made  him  the  evil  genius  of  his  age. 

On  the  civil  list  debate  Chatham  inveighed  against 
any  attempt  to  conceal  the  expenditure  from  Parlia- 
ment. The  late  good  old  King,  he  said,  was  sincere, 
and  allowed  you  to  know  "  whether  he  liked  you  or 
disliked  you."  Now,  George  iii.,  it  must  be  allowed, 
was  elaborately  gracious  to  Chatham  in  person,  but 
at  heart  was  his  bitter  enemy.  "  I  will  trust  no 
Sovereign  in  the  world,"  said  Chatham,  "  with  the 
means  of  purchasing  the  liberties  of  the  people.  Does 
he  mean,  by  drawing  the  purse-strings  of  his  subjects, 
to  spread  corruption  through  the  people,  to  procure 
a  Parliament,  like  a  packed  jury,  ready  to  acquit  his 
ministers  at  all  adventures  ?  "  Chatham  was  certainly 
sincere  enough  outside  the  royal  closet,  and  allowed 
King  or  subject  to  know  "  whether  he  trusted  you  or 
distrusted  you ! "  Never  did  he  speak  truer  word 
than  when  he  wrote  that  "  he  was  resolved  to  be  in 
earnest  for  the  public,  and  should  be  a  scarecrow  of 


XI.]  DEFENCE  OF  THE   CONSTITUTION  219 

violence  to  the  gentle  warblers  of  the  grove,  the  mod- 
erate Whigs  and  temperate  statesmen." 

Rockingham  and  his  friends  were  honest  and  honour- 
able men  —  so  were  they  all,  all  honourable  men  —  but 
"  that  moderation,  moderation !  was  the  burden  of  the  song 
among  the  body."  That  was  the  root  difference  between 
Chatham  and  the  Rockingham  connection.  Rocking- 
ham was  at  best  a  very  "  moderate  Whig."  Burke  for 
the  present  was  also  a  moderate  Whig,  though  in  his 
heart  of  hearts  a  passionate  Tory,  and  in  his  inmost 
brain  ever  a  keen  Conservative.  Chatham  was  a 
passionate  Whig  of  the  "  Glorious  Revolution  " :  con- 
stantly breaking  out  to  be  "  a  scarecrow  of  violence," 
by  design  rather  than  intemperance.  It  is  this  which 
explains  the  incompatibility  that  ever  kept  Chatham 
and  Burke  asunder.  Burke's  grand  essay  in  1770, 
Thoughts  on  the  Present  Discontents,  with  all  its  wisdom 
and  eloquence,  was  a  partisan  defence  of  the  feeble  and 
commonplace  rule  of  Rockingham,  and  an  oblique 
censure  on  Chatham  and  his  friends,  who  were  endea- 
vouring to  form  a  united  party.  Chatham  was  quite 
right  when  he  wrote  to  Rockingham  that  the  essay 
had  done  harm  to  the  cause.  And  Burke  was  quite 
wrong  —  ignobly  and  petulantly  wrong  —  when,  twenty 
years  afterwards,  he  called  this  "  a  knavish  letter." 
It  was  a  temperate  and  sensible  reply  to  a  criticism 
which  was  ill-timed  as  well  as  unjust.  It  was  unworthy 
of  Burke  to  justify  the  well-meaning  Rockingham  at 
the  expense  of  the  high-souled  Chatham. 

Though  the  state  of  Parliament  and  the  Constitution 
mainly  absorbed  Chatham's  energy  on  his  return  to 
public  life,  he  entered  with  keenness  into  the  questions 


220  CHATHAM  [chap. 

of  foreign  policy,  France  had  purchased  from  Genoa 
the  island  of  Corsica  during  Chatham's  retirement.  In 
his  speech  in  1770  he  expressed  his  regret  in  these 
■^^ords: — "France  has  obtained  a  more  useful  and 
important  acquisition  in  one  pacific  campaign,  than  in 
any  of  her  belligerent  campaigns.  It  is  too  much  the 
temper  of  this  country  to  be  insensible  of  the  approach 
of  danger,  until  it  comes  upon  us  with  accumiilated 
terror."  Nor  is  it  too  fanciful  to  speculate  that  if 
Chatham  had  retained  his  power  and  his  health  for 
but  another  year,  Napoleon  would  not  have  been  a 
Frenchman,  for  Chatham  never  would  have  suffered 
Corsica  to  pass  to  France. 

But  a  far  more  stirring  incident  roused  him  two 
years  afterwards  in  the  affair  of  the  seizure  by  Spain 
of  the  Falkland  Islands.  Peace  was  unbroken,  and 
ministers  and  the  nation  suspected  no  attack,  when 
Chatham,  in  urging  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
seamen, broke  forth  in  a  prophetic  outburst :  —  "I  pledge 
myself  that,  at  this  very  hour,  a  bloiv  of  hostility  has 
been  struck  against  us  by  our  old  inveterate  enemies 
in  some  quarter  of  the  world."  He  had  in  truth 
divined  that  the  efforts  made  by  Choiseul  in  France, 
and  by  Grimaldi  in  Spain,  to  restore  their  navies,  and 
to  overthrow  the  maritime  ascendency  of  Britain,  were 
about  to  result  in  some  overt  act.  Some  months  after- 
wards the  country  was  roused  to  fury  by  the  news  that 
a  Spanish  armament  had  seized  the  Falkland  Islands, 
lying  one  hundred  leagues  east  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan, 
and  had  expelled  a  weak  British  force  then  in  possession. 
These  distant  islands  had  been  alternately  claimed  and 
occupied  by  Spaniards,  French,  and  British.     But  the 


XI.]  DEFENGB   OF  THE   CONSTITUTION  221 

forcible  ejection  %^_g/JBritish  governor,  with  his  small 
military  and  naval  detachment,  was  more  than  the 
English  people  could  endure.  War  with  Spain  was 
thought  to  be  inevitable.  All  eyes  turned  to  Chatham. 
The  crisis  roused  him  to  all  his  old  fire.  The  nation 
hung  upon  his  words ;  and  he  poured  forth  one  of  his 
most  masterly  orations  on  the  international  relations 
and  the  maritime  problems  of  the  Empire. 

We  may  at  this  time  neglect  the  violence  with  which 
Chatham  stormed  against  the  ignorance,  neglect,  and 
treachery  of  the  ministers  who  had  reduced  the  country 
to  a  condition  as  deplorable  at  home  as  it  was  despic- 
able abroad.  Nor  can  we  take  seriously  his  denuncia- 
tions of  the  meanness  and  craftiness  of  the  Spaniards, 
the  cunning  of  their  merchants  and  their  officers,  and 
even  the  bad  faith  of  the  King  of  Spain,  who  dis- 
owned the  thief,  and  profits  by  the  theft,  as  a  common 
"  receiver  of  stolen  goods."  He  then  broke  forth  into 
the  famous  appeal :  — 

"  Let  us  have  peace,  my  Lords,  but  let  it  be  honourable,  let 
it  be  secure.  A  patched-up  peace  will  not  do  —  by  which  a  war 
may  be  deferred,  but  cannot  be  avoided.  ...  I  know  the 
strength  and  preparation  of  the  House  of  Bourbon ;  I  know 
the  defenceless,  unprepared  condition  of  this  country.  ...  I 
will  tell  these  young  ministers  the  true  source  of  intelligence. 
It  is  sagacity.  Sagacity  to  compare  causes  and  effects ;  to 
judge  the  present  state  of  things,  and  discern  the  future  by  a 
careful  review  of  the  past.  Oliver  Cromwell,  who  astonished 
mankind  by  his  intelligence,  did  not  derive  it  from  spies  in 
every  cabinet  in  Europe ;  he  drew  it  from  the  cabinet  of  his 
own  sagacious  mind.  He  observed  facts  and  traced  them 
forward  to  their  consequences.  From  what  was,  he  concluded 
what  must  be,  and  he  never  was  deceived.  ...  In  the  late 
war  we  had  85,000  seamen  employed.     We  now  have  but 


a 


222  CHATHA^LJ  [chap. 

16,000,  and  it  is  now  proposed  to  raise  this  to  25,000.  But 
the  forty  ships  of  the  line,  now  to  be  commissioned,  with  their 
frigates,  will  require  40,000  seamen.  .  .  .  Permit  me  now  to 
state  the  extent  and  variety  of  the  service  to  be  provided." 
"  The  first  great  and  acknowledged  object  of  national  defence, 
in  this  country,  is  to  maintain  such  a  superior  naval  force  at 
home,  that  even  the  united  fleets  of  France  and  Spain  may 
never  be  masters  of  the  Channel.  If  that  should  ever  happen, 
what  is  there  to  hinder  their  landing  in  Ireland,  or  even  upon 
our  own  coasts?  .  .  .  The  second  naval  object  with  an  English 
minister  should  be  to  maintain  at  all  times  a  powerful  Western 
squadron.  In  the  profoundest  peace  it  should  be  respectable ; 
in  war  it  should  be  formidable.  Without  it,  the  colonies,  the 
commerce,  the  navigation  of  Great  Britain,  lie  at  the  mercy  of 
the  House  of  Bourbon. 

"  The  third  obj  ect  indispensable  is  to  maintain  such  a  force  in 
the  Bay  of  Gibraltar  as  may  be  sufficient  to  cover  that  garrison, 
to  watch  the  motions  of  the  Spaniards,  and  to  keep  open  the 
communication  with  Minorca.  At  this  hour,  he  said,  there 
were  but  eleven  ships  ready  equipped  for  the  defence  of  the 
Channel,  one  ship  at  Jamaica,  one  at  the  Leeward  Islands, 
and  one  at  Gibraltar  ;  and  if  these  places  were  attacked,  they 
must  fall."  "  When  the  defence  of  Great  Britain  or  Ireland  is 
in  question,  it  is  no  longer  a  point  of  honour ;  it  is  not  the 
security  of  foreign  commerce,  or  foreign  possessions ;  we  are 
to  contend  for  the  very  being  of  the  state."  "  If  the  House  of 
Bourbon  make  a  wise  and  vigorous  use  of  the  actual  advantages 
they  have  over  us,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  on  this  day 
month  we  may  not  be  a  nation."  "When  I  compare  the 
numbers  of  our  people,  estimated  highly  at  seven  millions, 
with  the  population  of  France  and  Spain,  usually  computed 
at  twenty-five  millions,  I  see  a  clear  self-evident  impossibility 
for  this  country  to  contend  with  the  united  power  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon,  merely  upon  the  strength  of  its  own 
resources.  They  who  talk  of  confining  a  great  war  to  naval 
operations  only,  speak  without  knowledge  or  experience. 
We  can  no  more  command  the  disposition  than  the  events 
of  a  war.  Wherever  we  are  attacked,  there  we  must 
defend." 


XI.]  DEFENCE   OF  THE   CONSTITUTION  223 

He  then  turned  to  defend  the  alliance  with  Frederick 
of  Prussia — "that  wonderful  man  whose  talents  do 
honour  to  human  nature,"  Alliances  with  German 
princes  might  be  not  only  useful,  but  necessary.  But 
before  all  things  we  had  to  look  to  the  internal  condi- 
tion of  this  country.  We  might  look  abroad  for 
wealth,  or  triumphs,  or  luxury ;  but  England  is  the 
main  stay,  the  last  resort  of  the  whole  Empire. 
"  Could  it  be  expected  that  Englishmen  would  unite 
heartily  in  defence  of  a  government  by  which  they 
feel  themselves  insulted  and  oppressed  ?  Restore  them 
to  their  rights;  that  was  the  way  to  make  them 
unanimous.  It  is  not  a  ceremonious  recommendation 
from  the  Throne,  that  can  bring  back  peace  and  harmony 
to  a  discontented  people.  That  insipid  annual  opiate 
has  been  administered  so  long  that  it  has  lost  its  effect. 
Something  substantial,  something  effectual  must  be 
done." 

He  closed  with  a  furious  invective  against  the  men 
in  the  City  of  London  "  who  live  in  riot  and  luxury 
upon  the  plunder  of  the  ignorant,  the  innocent,  the 
helpless  —  the  miserable  jobbers  of  'Change  Alley,  or 
the  lofty  Asiatic  plunderers  of  Leadenhall  Street  —  the 
monied  interest,  that  blood-sucker,  that  muck-worm, 
which  calls  itself  the  friend  of  government  —  that 
advances  money  to  government,  and  takes  special 
care  of  its  own  emoluments  —  the  whole  race  of  com- 
missaries, jobbers,  contractors,  clothiers,  and  remitters 
—  not  the  honest  industrious  tradesman  or  the  fair  mer- 
chant —  who  are  the  prime  source  of  national  wealth." 
He  protested  that  he  could  never  again  be  a  minister  : 
that  a  strong  ministry  was  needed  :  it  must  be  popular 


224  CHATHAM  [chap.  xi. 

—  not  founded  on  any  family  connection.  Those  now 
in  oflBce  were  balancing  between  a  war  that  they 
ought  to  have  foreseen,  and  for  which  they  had  made 
no  provision,  and  an  ignominious  compromise.  He 
warned  them  of  their  danger.  If  they  were  forced 
into  war  they  stand  at  the  hazard  of  their  heads.  If 
they  made  an  ignominious  compromise,  let  them  con- 
sider if  they  would  be  able  to  walk  the  streets  in 
safety. 

Louis  XV.  shrank  from  war.  Spain  gave  way,  and 
restored  the  island.  It  was  soon  afterwards  abandoned, 
and  has  been  recovered  within  recent  years.  It  was 
said  at  the  time  that  "  Chatham's  very  name  would 
prevent  war."  Perhaps  his  speech  did.  This  speech 
of  Chatham's  was  the  occasion  of  Dr.  Johnson's  famous 
reply  that  it  was  "  the  feudal  gabble  of  a  man  who  is 
every  day  lessening  that  splendour  of  character  which 
once  illuminated  the  kingdom,  then  dazzled,  and 
afterwards  influenced  it."  An  apt  summary  of  the 
hostile  view  of  Chatham's  career. 


CHAPTER  XII 

DEFENCE   OF    AMERICA 

At  last  a  man  arose  whose  deeds  spoke  for  him,  the/rag- 
m,ents  of  whose  eloquence  were  passed  far  and  wide  from, 
mouth  to  ear,  and  did  not  lose  the  stamp  of  their  quality  in 
the  carrying.  With  his  broad  heart,  his  sivift  perception, 
and  his  capacious  intellect,  Chatham  knew  America,  and  he 
loved  her ;  and  he  was  known  and  loved  by  her  in  return. 
He  had  done  more  for  her  than  any  ruler  had  done  for  any 
country  since  Willia7n  the  Silent  saved  and  made  Holland ; 
and  she  repaid  himivith  a  true  loyalty.  When  the  evil  day 
came,  it  was  to  Chatham  that  she  looked  for  the  good  offices 
which  might  avert  an  appeal  to  arms.  Wlien  hostilities 
hadbroken  out,  she  fixed  on  him  her  hopes  of  an  honourable 
peace.  And  when  he  died — in  the  very  act  of  confessing 
her  lorongs,  though  of  repudiating  and  condemning  the 
establishment  of  that  national  independence  on  which  her 
own  mind  loas  by  that  time  irrevocably  set  —  she  refused  to 
allow  that  she  had  anything  to  forgive  him,  and  mourned 
for  him  as  a  father  of  her  people. 

In  these  words  the  latest  historian  of  the  American 
Revolution  —  Sir  George  Trevelyan,himself  both  states- 
man and  historian,  one  of  a  family  of  statesmen  and 
historians  —  sums  up  the  last  years  of  Chatham's  career. 
These  years  were  in  many  ways  the  grandest  of  his 
life.  He  stood  alone  without  a  party  or  a  group  be- 
hind him.  He  was  continually  disabled  by  disease,  and 
forced  to  withdraw  for  long  periods  together.  He  had 
against  him  prejudice  and  apathy  in  the  ruling  class  j 


226  CHATHAM  [chap. 

overwhelming  majorities  in  Parliament;  insolent, 
blind,  unscrupulous  ministers;  an  arrogant  bigot  on 
the  throne.  Against  such  opposition  he  could  not 
change,  he  could  scarcely  affect,  the  course  of  events. 
But  in  public  and  in  private  he  poured  out  his  indig- 
nation, his  appeals  to  reason  and  to  justice,  his  despair. 
He  touched  the  hearts  and  brains  of  all  the  finer  spirits 
of  the  age;  he  roused  a  generous  sympathy  in  the 
American  people ;  and  he  did  much  to  mitigate  the 
bitterness  which  they  not  unnaturally  felt,  and  long 
have  continued  to  nourish,  against  the  nation  of  their 
oppressors. 

When  George  Grenville  proposed  his  Stamp  Act  of 
1765,  Chatham  was  ill  in  bed,  and  remained  for  that 
year  absent  from  Parliament.  When  the  Stamp  Act 
was  repealed  in  the  following  year  it  had  been  mainly 
by  the  indignant  appeal  of  Chatham,  who  "  rejoiced 
that  America  had  resisted."  When  Townshend  in  1768 
carried  his  fatal  law  to  tax  colonial  imports,  Chatham 
was  not  only  prostrate  and  absent,  but  unable  to  know 
what  was  being  passed.  His  just  indignation  broke 
forth  in  public  and  in  private,  when  he  returned  to 
political  action,  and  found  the  irreparable  mischief 
which  had  been  done  under  cover  of  his  own  name. 

"  America  sits  heavy  upon  my  mind,"  he  wrote  to 
Lord  Shelburne.  Again  he  wrote  on  the  Boston  Tea 
outrage :  "  I  am  extremely  anxious  about  the  measures 
now  depending,  with  regard  to  America,  and  I  con- 
sider the  fate  of  Old  England  as  being  at  stake,  not 
less  tha.n  that  of  the  New."  He  thought  compensation 
should,  and  would,  be  offered  for  the  violent  destruc- 
tion of  the  East  Indian  Company's  tea  cargo.  "  Perhaps 


xii.]  DEFENCE   OF  AMERICA  227 

a  fatal  desire  to  take  advantage  of  this  guilty  tumult 
of  the  Bostonians,  in  order  to  crush  the  spirit  of 
liberty  among  the  Americans  in  general,  has  taken 
possession  of  the  heart  of  the  government.  If  that 
mad  and  cruel  measure  should  be  pushed,  one  need 
not  be  a  prophet  to  say,  England  has  seen  her  best 
days."  "  America  disfranchised,  and  her  charter 
mutilated,  may,  I  forebode,  resist;  and  the  cause 
become  general  on  that  vast  continent.  If  this 
happen,  England  is  no  more,  how  big  words  soever 
the  sovereign  in  his  parliament  of  Great  Britain  may 
utter." 

He  wrote  to  the  Sheriff  of  London  in  1774  :  "  What 
infatuation  and  cruelty  to  accelerate  the  sad  moment 
of  war !  Every  step  on  the  side  of  government,  in 
America,  seems  calculated  to  drive  the  Americans  into 
open  resistance,  vainly  hoping  to  crush  the  spirit  of 
liberty,  in  that  vast  continent,  at  one  successful  blow ; 
but  millions  must  perish  there  before  the  seeds  of  free- 
dom will  cease  to  grow  and  spread  in  so  favourable  a 
soil ;  and  in  the  meantime  devoted  England  must  sink 
herself,  under  the  ruins  of  her  own  foolish  and  in- 
human system  of  destruction."  "Maryland  cannot 
wear  chains  !  Would  to  Heaven  it  were  equally  plain 
that  the  oppressor,  England,  is  not  doomed,  one  day, 
to  bind  them  round  her  own  hands,  and  wear  them 
patiently !  "  He  rejoices  in  *'  the  manly  wisdom  and 
calm  resolution  "  of  the  Declaration  of  Eights  by  the 
American  Congress,  and  will  not  believe  that  "  free- 
men in  England  can  wish  to  see  three  millions  of 
Englishmen  slaves  in  America." 

To  Chatham  from  first  to  last  this  was  a  Civil  War, 


228  CHATHAM  [chap. 

of  peculiar  peril  and  injustice.  He  clearly  divined 
the  issue.  He  did  not  overrate  the  infatuation  of  the 
Court  party,  nor  the  indomitable  forces  they  were 
about  to  engage.  He  no  doubt  did  estimate  too 
strongly  the  dangers  to  English  liberty  and  the 
ruinous  consequences  to  our  country  of  the  inevitable 
defeat.  The  condition  of  Britain  after  the  surrender 
of  York  Town  was  indeed  humiliating.  But  the  fore- 
bodings of  Chatham  as  to  the  decline  of  his  country 
and  the  establishment  of  a  despotism  at  home  were 
hardly  verified.  Lecky,  Trevelyan,  and  our  recent 
historians  have  all  drawn  attention  to  the  fears  of  the 
Whig  Leaders,  that  the  expulsion  of  the  King's  forces 
from  the  United  States  would  mean  the  decadence  of 
our  country  and  the  ruin  of  the  Constitution.  But 
Chatham's  conviction  of  the  wrong  and  the  danger 
of  the  war  was  shared  to  the  full  by  Burke  and  by 
Kockingham,  by  Charles  Fox,  by  Lord  Shelburne,  and 
the  Duke  of  Richmond. 

It  was  not  till  May  1774  that  Chatham  again 
appeared  in  Parliament.  Disaffection  and  riot  in 
New  England  was  now  breaking  out  into  war.  He 
made  an  impassioned  protest  against  any  taxation 
of  the  Colonists,  and  against  the  methods  of  military 
coercion  by  which  the  taxation  was  being  enforced. 
He  called  "  Taxation,  that  father  of  American 
Sedition." 

"  My  Lords,  I  am  an  old  man,  and  would  advise  the  noble 
Lords  in  office  to  adopt  a  more  gentle  mode  of  governing 
America ;  for  the  day  is  not  far  distant,  when  America  may 
vie  with  these  Kingdoms,  not  only  in  arms,  but  in  arts  also." 
"  This  has  always  been  my  received  and  unalterable  opinion, 
and  I  will  carry  it  to  my  grave,  that  this  country  has  no  right 


XII.]  DEFENCE   OF  AMERICA  229 

under  Heaven  to  tax  America.  It  is  contrary  to  all  the 
principles  of  justice  and  civil  policy,  which  neither  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  State,  nor  even  an  acquiescence  in  the  taxes, 
could  justify  upon  any  occasion  whatever." 

In  1775  Chatham  entered  into  close  relations 
with  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  delegate  from  the 
American  Colonies ;  and  he  publicly  introduced  him 
to  the  House  of  Lords,  when  he  himself  moved  an 
address  to  the  King  to  withdraw  the  troops  from 
Boston,  He  stoutly  maintained  the  right,  the  duty 
of  the  people  of  America,  to  resist.  He  derided  the 
feeble  means  by  which  coercion  was  attempted  to  be 
enforced.  With  all  his  warmest  love  for  the  British 
troops,  he  said,  their  situation  was  truly  unworthy; 
penned  up,  pining  in  inglorious  inactivity.  They 
were  an  army  of  impotence  —  an  army  of  impotence 
and  contempt;  but  to  make  the  folly  equal  to  the 
disgrace,  they  were  an  army  of  irritation  and  vexation. 
All  attempts  to  impose  servitude  on  such  men,  to 
establish  despotism  over  such  a  mighty  continental 
nation,  must  be  vain,  must  be  fatal.  "  We  shall  be 
forced  ultimately  to  retreat  ;  let  us  retreat  while  we  can, 
not  when  we  must.  We  must  necessarily  undo  these 
violent  oppressive  acts:  they  must  be  repealed  —  you 
will  repeal  them ;  I  pledge  myself  for  it,  that  you  will 
in  the  end  repeal  them ;  I  stake  my  reputation  on  it : 
I  will  consent  to  be  taken  for  an  idiot,  if  they  are  not 
finally  repealed.  Avoid,  then,  this  humiliating  dis- 
graceful necessity."  Every  motive  of  justice  and  of 
policy,  of  dignity  and  of  prudence,  he  continued,  urged 
them  to  allay  the  ferment  in  America  by  withdrawing 
the  troops  from  Boston,  by  repealing  the  Acts.     Every 


230  CHATHAM  [chap. 

danger  and  every  hazard  impended  to  deter  them  from 
perseverance  in  their  ruinous  measures,  foreign  war 
hanging  over  their  heads  by  a  slight  and  brittle 
thread  —  France  and  Spain  watching  their  conduct  and 
waiting  for  the  maturity  of  their  errors. 

He  followed  this  up  by  a  complicated  Declaratory 
Bill,  which  he  prepared  in  conference  with  Franklin, 
but  which  it  is  needless  to  set  forth  in  detail.  It 
would  not  have  sufficed  to  content  the  Americans,  and 
it  was  perhaps  designed  as  a  subject  for  discussion 
rather  than  legislation.  It  was  summarily  rejected  by 
the  Lords,  though  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  voted  in 
the  minority  of  thirty-two.  On  4th  July  1776  the 
Congress  issued  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which 
caused  renewed  excitement  in  England,  and  a  revul- 
sion of  popular  feeling  to  continue  the  war.  Chatham 
was  not  carried  away  by  this  shock,  but  he  was  unable 
to  speak  in  public.  During  the  whole  of  the  year 
1776  he  was  retained  in  the  country  by  disease.  It 
was  not  until  May  1777  that  he  again  appeared  in  Par- 
liament. He  came  wrapped  in  flannels,  and  supported 
upon  crutches.     He  said :  — 

"  The  gathering  storm  might  break ;  it  has  already  opened 
and  in  part  burst.  If  an  end  be  not  put  to  this  war,  there  is 
an  end  to  this  country.  America  has  carried  us  through  four 
wars,  and  will  now  carry  us  to  our  death,  if  things  were  not 
taken  in  time.  You  may  ravage  —  you  cannot  conquer  ;  it  is 
impossible  :  you  cannot  conquer  the  Americans.  I  might  as 
well  talk  of  driving  them  before  me  with  this  crutch !  " 

In  October  1777  General  Burgoyne  surrendered  his 
whole  army  prisoners  of  war.  Before  the  news 
reached  this  country,  Chatham  made  another  impas- 


XII.]  DEFENCE   OF  AMERICA  231 

sioned  appeal  against  measures  which  had  reduced  this 
late  flourishing  Empire  to  ruin  and  contempt. 

"  Not  only  the  power  and  strength  of  the  country  are  wast- 
ing away  and  expiring;  but  her  well-earned  glories,  her  true 
honour,  her  substantial  dignity,  are  sacrificed.  France  has 
insulted  you ;  she  has  encouraged  and  sustained  America ;  and 
whether  America  be  wrong  or  right,  the  dignity  of  this  country 
ought  to  spurn  the  officious  insult  of  French  interference.  As 
to  conquest,  it  is  impossible.  You  may  swell  every  expense, 
and  every  effort,  still  more  extravagantly ;  pile  and  accumulate 
every  assistance  you  can  buy  or  borrow ;  traffic  and  barter 
with  every  pitiful  little  German  prince,  that  sells  and  sends  his 
subjects  to  the  shambles  of  a  foreign  prince  ;  your  efforts  are 
for  ever  vain  and  impotent  —  doubly  so  for  this  mercenary  aid 
on  which  you  rely ;  for  it  irritates,  to  an  incurable  resentment, 
the  minds  of  your  enemies  to  overrun  them  with  the  mercenary 
sons  of  rapine  and  plunder ;  devoting  them  and  their  possessions 
to  the  rapacity  of  hireling  cruelty  !  If  I  were  an  American,  as 
I  am  an  Englishman,  while  a  foreign  troop  was  landed  in  my 
country,  I  never  would  lay  down  my  arms  —  never —  never  — 
never  !  Your  own  army  is  infected  with  the  contagion  of  the.se 
illiberal  allies.  The  spirit  of  plunder  and  of  rapine  is  gone 
forth  among  them.  Who  is  the  man  that  has  dared  to  autho- 
rise as  associate  to  our  armies  the  tomahawk  and  scalping- 
knife  of  the  savage  ?  To  call  into  civilised  alliance  the  wild 
and  inhuman  savage  of  the  woods;  to  delegate  to  the  merciless 
Indian  the  defence  of  disputed  rights,  and  to  wage  the  horrors 
of  his  barbarous  war  against  our  brethren  ?  These  enormities 
cry  aloud  for  redress  and  punishment:  unless  thoroughly  done 
away,  it  will  be  a  stain  on  the  national  character  —  it  is  a  viola- 
tion of  the  Constitution  —  I  believe  it  is  against  law.  It  is  not 
the  least  of  our  national  misfortunes,  that  the  strength  and 
character  of  our  army  are  thus  impaired  :  infected  with  the 
mercenary  spirit  of  robbery  and  rapine  —  familiarised  to  the 
horrid  scenes  of  savage  cruelty,  it  can  no  longer  boast  of 
the  noble  and  generous  principles  which  dignify  a  soldier ;  no 
longer  sympathise  with  the  dignity  of  the  royal  banuer,  nor 
feel  the  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war,  that 


232  CHATHAM  [chap. 

make  '  ambition  virtue ' !  "What  makes  ambition  virtue  ? — the 
sense  of  honour.  But  is  the  sense  of  honour  consistent  with 
the  spirit  of  plunder,  or  the  practice  of  murder  ?  Can  it  flow 
from  mercenary  motives,  or  can  it  prompt  to  cruel  deeds? 
Besides  these  murderers  and  jilunderers,  let  me  ask  our  minis- 
ters —  what  other  allies  have  they  acquired  ?  What  other 
powers  have  they  associated  with  their  cause?  Have  they 
entered  into  alliance  with  the  King  of  the  Gypsies?  Nothing  is 
too  low  or  too  ludicrous  to  be  consistent  with  their  counsels." 

Lord  Suffolk  rose  and  defended  the  employment  of 
Indians,  that  it  was  justifiable  to  use  "all  the  means 
that  God  and  Nature  put  into  our  hands."  This  roused 
Chatham  to  the  famous  retort.  He  could  not  repress 
his  indignation :  — 

"  I  know  not  what  ideas  that  Lord  may  entertain  of  God 
and  nature  ;  but  I  know  that  such  abominable  principles  are 
equally  abhorrent  to  religion  and  humanity.  What !  to 
attribute  the  sacred  sanction  of  God  and  nature  to  the  mas- 
sacres of  the  Indian  scalping-knife  —  to  the  cannibal  savage 
torturing,  murdering,  roasting,  and  eating;  literally,  eating 
the  mangled  victims  of  his  barbarous  battles !  "  .  .  .  "These 
abominable  principles,  and  this  more  abominable  avowal  of 
them,  demand  the  most  decisive  indignation.  I  call  upon  that 
Right  Reverend  Bench,  those  holy  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and 
pious  pastors  of  our  Church  ;  I  conjure  them  to  join  in  the 
holy  work,  and  vindicate  the  religion  of  their  God  :  I  appeal  to 
the  wisdom  and  the  law  of  this  learned  Bench  to  defend  and 
support  the  justice  of  their  country  :  I  call  upon  the  Bishops 
to  interpose  the  unsullied  sanctity  of  their  lawn,  —  upon  the 
learned  judges  to  interpose  the  jiurity  of  their  ermine,  to  save 
us  from  this  pollution  :  —  I  call  upon  the  honour  of  your  Lord- 
ships to  reverence  the  dignity  of  your  ancestors  and  to  maintain 
your  own  :  I  call  upon  the  spirit  and  humanity  of  my  country 
to  vindicate  the  national  character :  —  I  invoke  the  genius  of  the 
Constitution.  P'rom  the  tapestry  that  adorns  these  walls,  the 
immortal  ancestor  of  this  noble  Lord  [Thomas  Howard,  first 
Earl  of  Suffolk]  frowns  with  indignation  at  the  disgrace  of  his 


XII.]  DEFENCE   OF  AMERICA  233 

country.  In  vain  he  led  your  victorious  fleets  against  the 
boasted  Armada  of  Spain  ;  invainhe  defended  and  established 
the  honour,  the  liberties,  the  religion,  the  Protestant  religion 
of  this  country  against  the  arbitrary  cruelties  of  Popery  and 
the  Inquisition,  if  these  more  than  popish  cruelties  and  inquisi- 
torial practices  are  let  loose  among  us  ;  to  turn  forth  into  our 
settlements,  among  our  ancient  connections,  friends,  and  rela- 
tions, the  merciless  cannibal,  thirsting  for  the  blood  of  man, 
■woman,  and  child — to  send  forth  the  infidel  savage  —  against 
whom  ?  against  your  Protestant  brethren ;  to  lay  waste  their 
country,  to  desolate  their  dwellings,  and  extirpate  their  race 
andname,with  these  horrible  hell-hounds  of  savage  war!"  .  .  . 
"  I  call  upon  your  Lordships,  and  the  united  powers  of  the 
State,  to  stamp  on  this  awful  subject  an  indelible  stigma  of  the 
public  abhorrence.  I  implore  those  holy  prelates  of  our 
religion,  to  do  away  these  iniquities  from  among  us.  Let  them 
perform  a  lustration  ;  let  them  purify  this  House  and  this 
country  from  this  sin ;  I  am  old  and  weak,  and  at  present 
unable  to  say  more ;  but  my  feelings  and  indignation  were  too 
strong  to  have  said  less.  I  could  not  have  slept  this  night  in 
my  bed,  nor  reposed  my  head  on  my  pillow,  without  giving 
this  vent  to  my  eternal  abhorrence  of  such  preposterous  and 
enormous  principles." 

A  few  weeks  later  Chatham  supported  the  Duke  of 
Richmond's  inquiry  into  the  state  of  the  nation,  in 
which  he  reviewed  the  perilous  condition  of  the 
country.  When  the  news  of  Burgoyne's  surrender 
came  at  the  end  of  1777,  he  defended  the  general  and 
his  army,  and  justly  declared  them  to  have  "  been 
sacrificed  to  the  ignorance,  temerity,  and  incapacity  of 
ministers."  He  revived  his  protest  against  the  use  of 
Indians  —  "a  pollution  of  our  national  character ;  a 
stigma  which  all  the  waters  of  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  would  never  wash  away."  He  challenged 
the  ministers  to  recall  the  mercenaries  and  to  disband 
the  savages  —  to  withdraw  our  troops   entirely.     On 


234  CHATHAM  [chap. 

the  motion  for  an  adjournment  of  the  House  for  six 
weeks,  he  again  spoke  on  11th  December  1777.  He 
insisted  that  the  hereditary  Council  of  the  nation 
should  not  take  holiday  when  the  nation  was  in 
mourning.  Nay  more,  it  was  in  imminent  peril  — 
"  Safe  no  longer  than  its  enemies  think  proper  to 
permit."  He  reviewed  the  state  of  our  naval  and 
military  defences,  and  exposed  their  weakness.  "  They 
told  you  in  the  beginning,  that  15,000  men  would 
traverse  America,  with  scarcely  the  appearance  of 
interruption.  Two  campaigns  have  passed  since  they 
gave  us  this  assurance ;  treble  that  number  has  been 
employed ;  and  one  of  your  armies,  which  composed 
two-thirds  of  the  force  by  which  America  was  to  be 
subdued,  has  been  totally  destroyed,  and  is  now  led 
captive  through  those  provinces  you  call  rebellious. 
Those  men  whom  you  called  cowards,  poltroons, 
runaways  and  knaves,  are  become  victorious  over  your 
veteran  troops ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  victory  and  the 
flush  of  conquest,  have  set  ministers  an  example  of 
moderation  and  magnanimity." 

With  the  year  1778  the  state  of  the  nation  was 
darker  than  ever.  The  King  and  his  ministers 
doggedly  persisted  in  the  war.  Troops  could  neither 
be  raised  nor  hired.  France  allied  itself  with  the 
Americans,  and  George  declared  war  with  France. 
England  had  not  a  friend  left.  Her  troops  were 
prisoners  or  blockaded  in  America.  Her  credit  was 
exhausted.  Her  fleet  was  unprepared ;  and  she  had 
reason  to  fear  attack  from  the  united  navies  of  Prance 
and  of  Spain.  In  this  terrible  hour  of  peril  there  was 
one  man  to  whom  all  thoughts  turned.     Lord  North, 


XII.]  DEFENCE   OF  AMERICA  235 

who  had  long  carried  on  this  war  against  his  own 
conviction  and  had  just  declared  the  conquest  of 
America  to  be  impossible,  implored  the  King  to  accept 
his  own  resignation  and  send  for  Chatham.  Bute,  the 
quondam  favourite,  said  Chatham  was  indispensable. 
Mansfield,  his  inveterate  enemy,  said  that  without 
him  the  ship  would  founder.  Camden,  Rockingham, 
Burke,  Richmond  joined  in  the  universal  cry  —  send 
for  Chatham. 

Against  all  this  George  resisted  with  the  dogged- 
ness  of  a  brute  rather  than  of  a  monarch.  He  would 
never  see  Chatham:  he  would  lose  his  crown  but 
never  would  accept  the  Opposition.  He  would  allow 
North  to  call  in  Chatham  as  a  subordinate,  but  the 
cast  and  policy  of  the  administration  should  not  be 
changed.  Lecky  calls  this  the  most  criminal  act  in 
the  whole  reign  of  George  iii.,  as  criminal  as  any  act 
of  Charles  i.  Whatever  the  chances  might  have  been, 
it  was  too  late.  Chatham  himself  was  at  death's  door. 
The  possibilities  of  any  reconciliation  or  settlement 
with  America  short  of  absolute  separation  were  now  at 
an  end.  Even  the  magic  of  Chatham's  name,  and  even 
his  genius  at  its  zenith,  now  could  have  effected 
nothing  in  the  way  of  compromise.  A  French  alliance 
had  bound  the  Americans  to  the  common  interest.  A 
French  war  had  roused  the  national  pride  of  Britons, 
when  it  was  seen  that  the  Empire  was  about  to  be 
broken  up  by  the  arms  of  their  hereditary  foe. 

To  this  humiliation  Chatham  would  not  stoop.  To 
the  American  people,  whom  he  loved  and  honoured, 
he  would  concede  everything.  But  to  have  America, 
which  he  h^^d  rescued  from  France,  again  torn  away 


236  CHATHAM  [chap. 

from  us  by  the  rival  whom  he  had  crushed  —  this 
was  a  sacrifice  to  which  he  could  not  submit.  His  old 
dread  and  jealousy  of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  which 
had  become  almost  a  monomania  with  him,  blazed  up 
with  all  its  ancient  fire.  In  this,  the  ardent  patriot 
extinguished  in  him  the  far-seeing  statesman.  "We 
can  see  to-day  how  far  passion  had  misled  him.  Burke, 
Rockingham,  Fox,  the  Duke  of  Richmond  —  some  of  the 
best  brains  of  the  Whig  party  —  urged  the  immediate 
recognition  of  American  independence.  Chatham  died 
in  the  act  of  protesting  against  it.  And  a  cloud  hung 
over  the  sun  of  his  renown  as  he  sank  to  rest. 

On  the  7th  of  April  1778,  the  Duke  of  Richmond 
moved  an  address  to  the  Crown  in  the  sense  of  their 
group.  Feeble  as  he  was,  in  his  seventieth  year, 
racked  with  pain,  Chatham  struggled  at  the  hazard  of 
his  life  to  attend  and  speak.  He  was  led  into  the 
House  by  his  son  William  Pitt,  the  future  statesman, 
and  his  son-in-law.  Lord  Mahon.  He  was  dressed  in 
black  velvet,  and  covered  to  the  knees  in  flannel. 
Within  his  large  wig  little  more  of  his  countenance  was 
seen  than  his  aquiline  nose  and  his  eye,  which  retained 
its  native  fire.  We  are  told,  "  He  looked  like  a  dying 
man,  yet  never  was  seen  a  figure  of  more  dignity  :  he 
appeared  like  a  being  of  a  superior  species."  The 
Lords  stood  up  and  made  a  lane  for  him  to  pass.  He 
bowed  as  he  went  on.  Presently  he  rose  slowly  with 
the  aid  of  his  crutches  and  the  two  young  men.  He 
raised  his  head,  and  looking  to  Heaven  he  said  — 

"  I  thank  God  that  I  have  been  enabled  to  come  here  this 
day  to  perform  my  duty.  I  am  old  and  infirm  —  have  one 
foot,  more  than  one  foot  in  the  grave  —  I  have  risen  from  ray 


XII.]  DEFENCE  OF  AMERICA  237 

bed,  to  stand  up  in  the  cause  of  my  country  —  perhaps  never 
again  to  speak  in  this  House." 

The  stillness  of  the  House  was  most  touching.  He 
continued  to  describe  all  the  evils,  the  crimes,  and  the 
follies  of  the  American  war. 

"  My  Lords,"  he  broke  forth,  "  I  rejoice  that  the  grave  has 
not  closed  upon  me  ;  that  I  am  still  alive  to  lift  up  my  voice 
against  the  dismemberment  of  this  ancient  and  most  noble 
monarchy !  Shall  this  great  kingdom  now  fall  prostrate 
before  the  House  of  Bourbon?  If  we  must  fall,  let  us  fall 
like  men  1 " 

The  Duke  of  Kichmond  replied  with  cool  sense  to 
show  the  hopelessness  of  a  war  by  Britain  in  her 
present  forlorn  state  against  the  united  forces  of 
France,  Spain,  and  America.  He  told  the  orator  that 
even  he  would  now  find  himself  in  impossible  condi- 
tions. Chatham  seemed  roused  and  indignant.  He 
struggled  to  his  feet,  and  essayed  to  stand.  Then  he 
pressed  his  hand  upon  his  heart  and  fell  in  convulsions. 
The  peers  near  caught  him  in  their  arms.  The  House 
was  cleared :  he  was  carried  to  Downing  Street,  and 
shortly  afterwards  to  his  home  at  Hayes.  On  the 
11th  of  May  he  died  there  in  peace,  surrounded  by  his 
wife  and  his  children. 


APPENDIX 

The  most  dramatic  death  in  English  history,  except  that  of 
Nelson,  produced  a  profound  impression  on  the  nation.  A 
public  fimeral  was  ordered  by  Parliament  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  with  a  huge  and  somewhat  pompous  monument. 
The  ceremony  was  attended  by  Burke,  Rockingham,  Rich- 
mond, Shelburne,  Camden,  and  other  Whig  chiefs.  The  chief 
mourner  was  William  Pitt,  then  but  nineteen,  for  the  eldest 
son  was  serving  with  his  regiment  in  Gibraltar.  The  House 
of  Commons  voted  £20,000  to  pay  debts,  and  £4000  a  year  to 
successors  in  the  title.  The  City  of  London  in  vain  asked  to 
have  the  funeral  in  St.  Paul's.  They  contented  themselves 
with  the  cenotaph  in  the  Guildhall,  for  which  Burke  com- 
posed a  sonorous  homily.  In  the  national  collections  are  a 
portrait  after  Brompton,  the  picture  by  Copley  representing 
the  seizure  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  statue  in  St. 
Stephen's  Hall.  In  private  collections  are  busts  and  portraits ; 
and  no  public  man  has  been  more  faithfully  recorded. 

The  private  and  domestic  life  of  Chatham  is  one  of  un- 
broken dignity  and  charm.  In  all  his  relations  to  his  wife 
and  children  we  find  a  nature  pure,  generous,  and  affectionate. 
His  letters  are  too  often  dry  and  stiff;  but  they  breathe 
within  a  conventional  cover  love,  thoughtfulness,  and  tender 
hopes.  One  cannot  estimate  how  much  the  opponent  of 
Napoleon  owed  to  his  father's  watchful  training  and  incessant 
zeal.  The  noble  letters  in  which  Chatham  consigned  his  first- 
born to  his  military  superiors,  and  again  when  he  withdrew 
him  from  his  commission,  rather  than  suffer  him  to  fight 
Americans,  are  as  fine  as  those  when  at  last  he  sent  him  away 
again  to  the  army,  on  the  outbreak  of   war  with  France. 

238 


APPENDIX  239 

"  Go,  my  son,  whither  your  country  calls  you,  spare  not  a 
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twenty -five  years,  and  was  laid  beside  him  in  the  Abbey, 
having  witnessed  the  successes  of  her  famous  son. 


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